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CES: The Security Questions Nobody Wants You To Ask

A note that CES – the Consumer Electronics Show – is once again upon us. Prepare yourself for three or four days of tipsy reporting from the mainstream media about all the gee whiz gadgets that will soon be yours…or not. Let’s face it: a lot of what’s shown at CES is proof of concept stuff and some of it is just too downright silly to ever catch on. Remember HAPIFork? The “smart” fork that would warn you when you were shoveling grub into your maw too quickly? Right.

Product security and data privacy are almost always lost in the excitement over the new gadgets and the TUSs. (Televisions of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist!)

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Smart TVs – some of them obscenely large -will be a big draw at CES 2014. But does ‘smart’ mean ‘secure’? (Photo of Samsung 110 inch Ultra HD TV courtesy of DigitalTrends.com)

That’s why, over on the Veracode blog, I put together a quick list of impertinent questions that every security-minded CES attendee should have at their fingertips. The questions cover a wide range of areas – from what data collected by consumer devices to how devices are audited for security holes prior to release. Given the marketing focus of CES, the chances are slim that the booth babes err… ‘product specialists’ on the floor will have any clue what you’re asking them. But be persistent – and feel free to report back here or on Veracode’s blog with anything you hear back!

Enjoy!

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