Hacking Lightbulbs To Cause a Sustained Blackout 115
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)."
Question (Score:5, Insightful)
wireless basic needs (Score:4, Insightful)
SUSTAINED BLACKOUT!!! OH NOES!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Turning off a single or set of light bulbs is not a "sustained blackout." Shutdown all electrical systems in a city (or at least a neighborhood) and maybe you can start talking blackout. But turning off a couple of light bulbs isn't even inconvenient. What kind of hyperbolic dipshittery headline writing is this?
Re:Question (Score:4, Insightful)
Hard to say.
Perhaps it's because you didn't recognize the extremely important but implicit message that unless we (the engineers) pay more attention to what we're doing, then our products can be susceptible to widespread mayhem.
It's a pretty relevant topic as everything around us becomes more and more networked.
Re:wireless basic needs (Score:2, Insightful)
Having to go inside to turn on your outdoor lights, eh? Next thing you know, telephony will revert to two tin cans and a string.
Maybe I just suffer from a 20th century mentality, but I've never felt deprived having to actually open the door and go inside to turn on the outdoor lights. If I did, I would install a switch on the outside! (yes, waterproof obviously).
This whole wireless control thing has degenerated into silly gimmicks. Admittedly this doesn't seem like some great security threat to me. There's a bit of a difference between being able to turn off some of the lights of some of the people and being able to shut down power stations, but this is still a gimmick.
Re:Question (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do I feel like I'm standing in line at the supermarket reading the cover of some tabloid rag right now...
Maybe it's time add a third level of moderation to slashdot. Have at least 5 high karma readers edit all article posts before they go up.
- Spelling/grammar corrections
- Weasel word removal
- Check/supply links
- Accurate titles/summaries
God knows the current batch of mods aren't doing their job.