Security Firm Predicts "Murder By Internet-Connected Devices" 135
Curseyoukhan writes "Infosec vendor IID (Internet Identity) probably hopes that by the time 2014 rolls around no one will remember the prediction it just made. That is the year it says we will see the first murder via internet connected device. The ability to do this has been around for quite some time but the company won't say why it hasn't happened yet. Probably because that would have screwed up their fear marketing. CIO blogger challenges them to a $10K bet over their claim."
My prediction (Score:1, Troll)
By 2014 this bullshit of connecting your toaster to the cloud will be a fad, and not many people will actually care to sign in to see how many farts they tweeted
I thought 2014 (Score:3)
It's been a few years since this was on QDB... (Score:5, Funny)
...but it looks like [SA]HatfulOfHollow has finally completed his killer device.... http://www.bash.org/?4281 [bash.org]
Not a problem (Score:1)
Don't worry, my run-away killer AI drone will stop it in time.
I gotta say: (Score:5, Funny)
Goatse certainly came close
Re: (Score:1)
Killing your innocence doesn't count.
Re: (Score:2)
Not the first... just the first real one. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Oh my god, confusing Homeland with a shitty generic show like NCIS.
You don't deserve to own a TV.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
A remote control gun in a car truck is used, while sitting in class listening a guest lecture.
Re: (Score:3)
Bad luck film producer. Plans to make the major science fiction film of the year, releases it in the same year as The Terminator.
Re: (Score:2)
"Runaway" is a free video on Amazon Prime--for good reasons.
Re: (Score:1)
Already been a novel about this... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
In Germany the official sequel to "Daemon" is called "Dark Net" not "Freedom", if you are interested in a read. ;) I don't now why they changed the name, though.
Re: (Score:1)
Hasn't it happened numerous times already? (Score:5, Interesting)
Most remotely-triggered bombs made by extremists of various kinds are triggered by cellphones - so true in fact that some countries shut down their cell networks preventively [www.geo.tv]. Cellphones use some kind of radio network and proprietary protocol for the last mile, but essentially, beyond that, telephony is entirely IP-based these days. You can even call a cellphone from a PC now with programs like Skype.
So I think essentially all recent bombing attacks can be called "murder by internet-connected devices".
Re: (Score:2)
Most remotely-triggered bombs made by extremists of various kinds are triggered by cellphones
A remotely-triggered bomb maker extremist had his head blown off . . . by a cellphone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Ayyash [wikipedia.org]
With a wee bit of dramatic irony, as well . . .
No Internets were harmed in the process.
Re: (Score:2)
Nice story.... I love how the Isrealis don't bother with arrest and trial, they just stoop right to assasination.... its nice having a conflict where this is no moral authority on any side. Makes it easy to just sit back and enjoy it as they kill eachother.
But its true, no internet connection on phones in 1995.
Already happened (Score:2)
Depending on your definition of "via internet device" all someone has to do is beat someone to death with a cell phone, or a laptop, or even run them down with a reasonably modern car. There's a good chance this has already happened.
If the definition is that the act of murder is committed remotely via the internet (a more reasonable definition), then I'm sure some bright spark will arm a civilian drone and do their deed that way. Already been done by the military, obviously, but I don't think that falls und
Re: (Score:3)
It's been done already. (Score:2, Interesting)
Alot of pacemakers have wireless with none or simple security... (why i have no fucking clue why we did that...)
100% undetectable too. Heart problems in a person with a pacemaker is not suspicious at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Chain mail body suit as farady cage?
Technical definition (Score:1)
What about telepresence medicine? I can see remote-operated machinery adding a layer of legal misdirection to doctor-assisted suicide attempts.
Nice bet (Score:2)
I'm sure they can't wait to put them selves in a position to very publically benefit financially from the first such murder...
Fools and the fools that fool them (Score:2)
Virtual nobody posts sensationalistic headline to grow mindshare, news at 11.
Re: (Score:1)
has been laments loss of mindshare, news at 12
Online Remote Operated Surgery (Score:3)
Could have already happened. (Score:1)
There are already numerous reports of virus infections of hospital systems.
The only remaining question is whether or not an improper drug dispensing activity occurred at the same time time, with the same system.
Re: (Score:2)
That would be manslaughter.
Quelle Suprise (Score:3)
Firm with vested interest in selling you "stuff" is *very* concerned that "stuff" might happen. Buy now whilst stocks last !
Facebook (Score:2)
I predict that someone will come up with the bright idea of hooking up some medical device to Facebook. It will seem like a "good idea at the time" to someone for some reason only god knows. One of the guy's friends will submit a score challenge for a Facebook game, and trip some godforsaken undocumented bug in the API, causing the device to malfunction. All of a sudden, it will become a lot more important to have a high score in <insert game here>.
Probably already happened (Score:5, Interesting)
IID predicts for 2013 that criminals will leverage networked healthcare devices to carry out murders. My counter-theory is, that the first murder probably has already occurred; we and the police just didn't notice it. So 2013 may be the year the first murder via Internet device is proven.
During a BKA (German version of the FBI) conference, i made a remark that got me nationwide media attention in 2000: "In the Internet you'll find anything but murder." I wish i could say this with the same conviction today as i did back then (http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/BKA-hat-Muehe-mit-der-Internet-Kriminalitaet-16354.html [heise.de]).
I think those happy days Daniel Suarez [thedaemon.com] envisioned have already arrived.
You're all doomed! You'll be killed by your PC! (Score:5, Insightful)
I would probably consider this news (that is in no way interesting and informative) if this prediction is made by Symantec, McAfee or Kaspersky. Put some obscure "IID" here and it just smells so slash-PR.
Sounds like something from the 90s (Score:1)
In particular "Killer Net" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127383/
Everything took longer though as they were all on dial up.
What kind of devices are they thinking off? (Score:1)
Knives wielding USB gadgets?
http://achewood.com/index.php?date=01122007 [achewood.com]
Besides cartoon characters who on earth would be dense enough to.... ...
Oh GOD!...Thinkgeek will destroy us all!
Doh! (Score:3)
Too late. (Score:2)
In 2012 Pakistan shut down their cell phone networks for a period of time [theworld.org]. The reason they did this was to prevent bombings, which often use a cell phone as their trigger.
Almost all cell phones now are connected to the internet, even the very cheap ones.
Thus, the year it says we will see the first murder via an internet connected device likely has already happened.
What they mean to say is the first murder via an internet connected device that uses the internet itself to commit the mu
So what.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In the USA, millions and millions of people have guns that could easily be used to murder anybody. In Western countries in general, almost everybody has kitchen knifes that could easily be used to murder someone. I have a spade and a pitchfork that could be used for murder. Why would I worry that about "Murder by Internet-Connected Devices"?
You're naming a bunch of ways of physically attacking someone. That requires physical access.
With an Internet-enabled method this isn't required. All the locks on the door and guards in the world wont stop the perpetrator in this scenario unless you stop your Facebook addiction. Hey, you could murder them from outside the legal jurisdiction. Even from a country with internet access and no extradition agreements with the place where the murder took place. Assuming the authorities are able to figure out who t
I call meh (Score:2)
Yes and? It hasn't happened because...well... there isn't a high demand for murder. Not many people want to engage in it (really, I mean, everyone says it when blowing off steam but, very few would actually do it, even if handed means and opportunity).
Planned murders like you see in movies are, by far, the exception. Not just the exception but the exceptional case of an already rare occurance. In a major city, 100-200 murders a year seems on the mid range to high side from a casual perusal of the numbers...
Mrs Apple, in the Man Cave with the iPad (Score:3)
What are we talking about here? When my wife beats me to death with her iPad because I've been too busy playing Far Cry 3 for the past 2 weeks to take out the garbage or bathe?
It won't happen often (Score:1)
Thankfully the group of people who commit premeditated murder and people with the geeky skills to kill over the Internet rarely overlap.
It's the same with terrorism, people who commit those acts aren't exactly the brightest bulbs in the room, just imagine what a bunch of brilliant, well funded engineers could do.
Think invisible flying death bots.
O, we already got those, never mind then. :)
Damn you USB Turkey Carver! (Score:1)
Now I know why you needed access through my firewall...
Lot's of ways to do it .... (Score:1)
Guess what? *You* are an internet-connected device (Score:2)
Someone finally finished watching Homeland (Score:2)
I guess I'm not the only one that finally finished watching the recent season of Homeland. Internet controlled pacemaker, anyone?
this has been happening since 1995 (Score:2)
Scenario (Score:2)
Photoshop someone burning a Koran.
Upload to YouTube.
The End.
Surely this has already been done... (Score:1)
Will happen? (Score:1)
http://inhomelandsecurity.com/teen_hacker_in_poland_plays_tr/ [inhomelandsecurity.com]
http://paranoidnews.org/2011/11/hackers-take-control-of-a-water-pump-in-illinois-and-disrupt-public-water-system/ [paranoidnews.org]
And there's one more I can't seem to google, where a British train was derailed, and one or more death may have occured, because some 16 yr old "hacker" had gotten into the rail company's switching system (WHICH WAS ON THE 'NET!!!!!), and changed switch setting at the wrong time. This would have been in the last 8 years or so.....
It's called a drone..... (Score:1)
Medical (Score:2)
My guess is that it has something to do with medical devices in hospitals. Reprogram a daVinci robot to go all Ginsu?
Re:So we are to believe (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So we are to believe (Score:5, Insightful)
And how many drone strikes have been carried out over the past 10 years?
The drones aren't connected to the internet, only military networks. Any peripheral traffic that happens to route anywhere out into the internet is on a secured VPN... and at that, it's only sensitive material, nothing that'll say, start world war three. The same cannot be said for, say, nuclear reactors and related industrial equipment (like centrifuges)... which apparently are. All that out of the way, who really cares what a couple of rich dudes do with their gambling money? But in the larger sense, yes, it will happen eventually as if there's one thing you can bet on long-term is that we'll find more creative ways to kill each other...
All this boils down to is one person betting on "sooner" and the other on "later".
Re: (Score:2)
The same cannot be said for, say, nuclear reactors and related industrial equipment (like centrifuges)... which apparently are.
In which country? Iranian equipment was not internet connected, its enemies had to infect it via USB flash drives. Which countries have worse security at nuclear facilities than Iran?
The Columbine Coefficient (Score:1)
You are claiming..... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
The point murder in a legal sense, something someone could be tried for murder over.
And yes, legal meaning whatever bullshit happens to be in law as what murder is.
IANAL, but drones are being treated as legal, at least for now.
Re: (Score:2)
Just because it is "treated as legal" for now by the same government that is doing the strikes does not make it actually legal.
Someone should be tried for murder in many of these cases.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But it isn't considered illegal by enough countries either..
Re: (Score:2)
Even worse than that!!!
Fear your pacemaker!!! People with heart problems will now have an increased risk of death!!!
Uh. Well you know what I mean. Fear!!!
Why would my car need a two-way comm channel on the Internet? I can possibly see reporting but accepting input? Why?
See the comments about the pacemaker above.
Re:So we are to believe (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would my car need a two-way comm channel on the Internet? I can possibly see reporting but accepting input? Why?
For providing entertainment and map, weather and traffic updates. That shouldn't be able to spill into the controls, but you never know.
Re: (Score:3)
Why would my car need a two-way comm channel on the Internet? I can possibly see reporting but accepting input? Why?
For providing entertainment and map, weather and traffic updates. That shouldn't be able to spill into the controls, but you never know.
Not to mention enabling higher power profiles for the ECM's on a rental basis: selling such value added services directly to consumers has been something of a holy Grail for the car industry. If they could only lock out those pesky chip trimming shops.... The possibility for remote sabotage is one reason such services haven't taken off yet.
Re:So we are to believe (Score:5, Insightful)
One major vector that would be ripe for abuse would be a combination of "self driving car", + "malicious GPS map update".
Eg, the self driving car would have sensors to determine it is on an actual road, of course. But that doesn't stop the car from autodriving off an unfinished bypass rampway, when its map software says the road is finished.
This wouldn't necessarily be able to target a specific vehicle without a pretty sophisticated man in the middle attack, (how you would do that is questionable in and of itself, perhaps if you put the middleman directly ON the car? Malicious android device, or a raspberry pi? But if you do that, why not just put a pipebomb like normal terrorists would?) But would work with a remote DNS injection attack against an entire vehicle product line, with disasterous effects all over. The attacker just needs to know when vehicles contact the map server, poison the DNS for the server, and then serve the malicious maps to updating vehicles when they connect.
Re: (Score:1)
malicious GPS map update
Wasn't there a news story about some people who got lost and starved to death because of the iPhone maps?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I would call that a Darwin Award Winner...
Re: (Score:1)
I would hope that self driving cars would be able to see if they are about to drive off an unfinished bypass whether or not the map says it is finished.
Re: (Score:2)
I hear about this one GPS that failed to say wait for ferry and showed the road as going though
Well... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Consider the following:
A vehicle with forward facing sensor cameras will "percieve" that the road "suddenly ends" when cresting a very steep hill, because the top of the hill obstructs the camera's view of the road surface, and the road sharply descends after the crest. (Think, colorado, or just mountains in general.) Also, sharp turn in road behind visual obstacle. (Tall building, rock cliff wall, concrete abuttment, etc.)
To prevent the car from stopping dead on the highway, the vehicle has to make an educ
Re: (Score:3)
Fear your pacemaker!!! People with heart problems will now have an increased risk of death!!!
Uh. Well you know what I mean. Fear!!!
I think "death by wifi enabled pacemaker" is most likely. It was covered [wired.com] previously [edn.com], so now it's just a matter of time and effort for someone actually do it. Well, it's also required that someone with a pacemaker is hated enough by someone else who has access to get the serial number, etc. and then go through with murdering him/her or find someone else with the skills and inclination. That reduces your population of potential perpetrators.
Is it possible this will happen? Yes.
In the next 24 months? Yes.
Will
Re: (Score:2)
I think "death by wifi enabled pacemaker" is most likely.
s/death/murder
Re: (Score:2)
Covered here too [imdb.com]
Re:So we are to believe (Score:4, Informative)
The idiot engineers that design these things don't bother implementing 1-way data transfer (e.g. allow car to report engine statistics but don't allow reprogramming remotely), encryption, or any security measures at all. They rely entirely on obscurity to prevent these devices being used maliciously.
Until someone dies, it's not a problem. When someone does die, they have enough lawyers to prevent the family that just lost someone from suing them.
Re: (Score:2)
EULA's are different for different licenses. How do you know the one for the medical equipment says that?
Re: (Score:2)
When someone does die, they have enough lawyers to prevent the family that just lost someone from suing them.
They'll get sued, the lawyers are to ensure that the settlement will be inadequate, e.g., the company will remain in business.
Re: (Score:2)
Even worse than that!!!
Fear your pacemaker!!! People with heart problems will now have an increased risk of death!!!
I take it you haven't watched Homeland?
Re: (Score:2)
And when that company is sued out of existence then, hopefully, we'll all learn that not everything needs access to Facebook.
But what better way to monitor vial signs than through tweets?
Re: (Score:2)
So what they're really "predicting" is that some engineer at some medical supply company will get REALLY stupid and build in some back-door-thing that will open the company up to all kinds of lawsuits.
Yeah, I can see that happening. Eventually. Once. And when that company is sued out of existence then, hopefully, we'll all learn that not everything needs access to Facebook.
"backdoor" -> "remote code execution bug". Discuss.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My brother put me in hospital twice... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:First post people!!! (Score:4, Funny)
That's too much work. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Hasn't Apple already murdered tons of people people in the Australian desert simply by sticking "Mildura" in the wrong spot? I'm sure of it. Either that or those Maps "victims" were awfully inconvenienced, probably missing their favorite reality TV shows, which is nearly as bad.
In my village, two people were killed because they followed Google's instructions to get to the pub, which was in the middle of the cricket field. During a game. They annoyed the players so much they were clubbed to death. (The deaths are not true, the pub in the middle of the cricket field on Google maps is).
Re: (Score:2)
RTFA (Score:2)
The author offered $1000 at 10:1 to the FUDsters that put this nonsense out in the first place.
Yeah, I had to look.