Hacking Lightbulbs To Cause a Sustained Blackout

An anonymous reader writes "Researcher Nitesh Dhanjani just published an evaluation of the Philips Hue wireless lighting system that is available at Apple stores (and online). These lightbulbs come with a wireless bridge that you can control from your iPhone. Dhanjani has published a video demonstrating a vulnerability he found that can be exploited by malware to cause a sustained blackout. The video shows how the malware script can continuously turn the light bulbs off. Dhanjani also discusses other scenarios such as the systems' tie in with IFTTT (If This Then That) to cause a blackout by tagging a Facebook user on a completely black photo. Lots of interesting ideas on security vulnerabilities targeting future malware and smart devices. The paper can be downloaded here (PDF)."

Re:SUSTAINED BLACKOUT!!! OH NOES!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the term blackout originally referred to everyone shutting off their lights during an air raid,

Hysteria Much?

[s122604]

The hack described in the article is interesting from a technical perspective, but the use of the term "blackout" is hysterical and misleading.

When I think of the term "blackout", I take that to mean no more 120/240 in any of my sockets.

Yes, appliance hacks are something that we all should think about as more and more of the ubiquitous appliances, like lights, HVAC, water and sewer, that truly make the modern world function come online, but cmon....