Black Hat Talks To Outline Attacks On Home Automation Systems

colinneagle writes "If you use the Z-Wave wireless protocol for home automation then you might prepare to have your warm, fuzzy, happiness bubble burst; there will be several presentations about attacking the automated house at the upcoming Las Vegas hackers' conferences Black Hat USA 2013 and Def Con 21. For example, CEDIA IT Task force member Bjorn Jensen said, 'Today, I could scan for open ports on the Web used by a known control system, find them, get in and wreak havoc on somebody's home. I could turn off lights, mess with HVAC systems, blow speakers, unlock doors, disarm alarm systems and worse.' Among other things, the hacking Z-Wave synopsis adds, 'Zigbee and Z-wave wireless communication protocols are the most common used RF technology in home automation systems...An open source implementation of the Z-wave protocol stack, openzwave, is available but it does not support the encryption part as of yet. Our talk will show how the Z-Wave protocol can be subjected to attacks.'"

Yup ...

[gstoddart]

My cable company keeps sending me crap for home monitoring whereby you can control your alarm from your smartphone -- and I wouldn't trust that.

My energy company wants me to sign up for a smart thermostat where they can remotely change my temperature if they decide I should be using less energy -- and I sure as hell wouldn't want that.

Opening up access to these things from outside of your home sounds like it might be convenient, but it's a gaping security hold waiting to happen.

No way, no how would I want things like this. Because I have zero confidence that the people writing this give a shit about my security, just getting a product to market.

Re: asking for trouble

[peragrin]

Comcast is pushing their home automation/security system that ties into their servers.

Part of the advertising is to watch your kids come home from school and turn on the lights for them.

Now that is scary. Letting any idiot know when your kids are home alone.