Technologies Archives

Technologies

Printable Smart Labels Warn When The Milk’s Gone Bad

October 17, 2013 Paul Roberts

What’s been called “The Internet of Things” or “The Internet of Everything” is a revolution in computing that has seen the population of Internet connected “stuff” skyrocket. By 2020, there will be an estimated 50 billion devices connected to the Internet (or whatever its called then). Today, the list of IP-enabled stuff is already long: phones, automobiles, household appliances, clothing. But, under the hood, a lot of these devices really aren’t much different from the PCs that grace our desks. They have hard drives, CPUs, memory, input devices, and so on. Most are still assembled in factories by humans and machines. This can be done cheaply and, in some cases, automated. But it’s still a labor-intensive and expensive process. But what if you could just “print” working electronics like, say, The New York Times prints its daily newspaper (at least for now!)? That would change everything. For one thing: […]

News Roundup: Plundering The Internet Of Things

October 16, 2013 Paul Roberts

There were two interesting pieces on the fast-evolving topic of security and the Internet of Things that are worth reading. The first is a long piece by Bob Violino over at CSO that takes the pulse of the IoT and security question right now. The big picture: its early days, but that there are some troubling trends. The vast expansion of IP-enabled devices is matched by a lack of security know-how at device makers, Violino writes. And, as the environment of “smart devices” grows, the interactions between those devices become more difficult to anticipate – especially as devices start sharing contextual data and taking actions based on that data. “As machines become autonomous they are able to interact with other machines and make decisions which impact upon the physical world,” notes Andrew Rose, a principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. Rose says. “But these are coded by […]

IT Risk And The Zombie Apocalypse: Surviving The Onslaught

October 15, 2013 Paul Roberts

One of the most vexing problems that faces IT organizations these days is how to measure their relative risk of being hacked or otherwise attacked. This sounds like pretty dry stuff, but it’s not. Failing to adequately account for your risks and exposure can mean the difference between swatting away an annoying intrusion attempt, and watching as foreign competitors or nation-states siphon off your critical intellectual property, bleeding your company of its competitiveness. But raising the alarm about this is always a tricky matter. Soft pedal it, and nobody takes you seriously. Scream from the rafters and …well…you’re screaming from the rafters. My friend and former colleague Josh Corman, however, found a good metaphor for the whole affair: the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. It’s all a bit of fun – though Mr. Corman is dead serious about the zombie stuff. Still, the idea is simple: attacks on your network and those of […]

At MIT Conference, Warnings of Big Data Fundamentalism

October 9, 2013 Paul Roberts

A senior Microsoft researcher issued a stern warning about the negative consequences of the current mania for data harvesting saying that a kind of “fundamentalism” was emerging regarding the utility of what’s been termed “Big Data” that could easily lead to a Orwellian future of ubiquitous surveillance and diminished freedom. Speaking to an audience of around 300 technology industry luminaries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s annual Emerging Technology (EMTECH) conference, Kate Crawford, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Boston said that the technology industry’s fetish for “Big Data” had blinded it to the limits of analytics, and the privacy implications of wholesale data harvesting. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) annual Emerging Technologies (EMTECH) conference, a high-gloss event that throws entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics together to talk ‘big ideas’ on TED-inspired sets. Crawford’s speech, coming on the heels of a talk about transforming healthcare with big data […]

Video: Weaponizing Your Coffee Pot

October 7, 2013 Paul Roberts

The third annual DerbyCon wrapped up last week. Alas, I wasn’t able to make it down to Louisville, Kentucky and don a pork-pie hat with the smart people there. Still, there were some great presentations, and most of them are available online. One worth checking out if you’re into the Internet of Things hacking -thing is Daniel Buentello’s (@danielbuentell0) presentation of “Weaponizing Your Coffee Pot.” This is a repeat performance for Daniel, who also presented it at the ToorCon Conference in Seattle back in July. The first half of this talk is a high level overview of IoT and the security implications thereof. Mostly this is stuff you’ve read on this blog before. In the second half, Daniel goes down into the weeds on hacking a couple of classic IoT devices: Belkin’s WeMo IP enabled power outlet and Nest’s iconic thermostat. Without getting into all the details (its worth watching […]