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Hackers can infect network-connected wrenches to install ransomware (arstechnica.com)

submitted 10 months ago by dannym@lemmy.escapebigtech.info to c/technology

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I'm a software engineer and I love actual technology, but I think we have reached the peak of mt. stupid

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[–] jarfil 22 points 10 months ago

I think we have reached the peak of mt. stupid

Not even close.

30 years ago I had a friendly discussion with an experienced veteran engineer, in which I pointed out the cranes moving tons of molten steel around the factory, were remote controlled with no encryption or security in sight. The response I got:

"LOL. We don't need any of that, who would ever want to mess with (a crane carrying some tons of hot molten steel)?"

As IoT has slowly clawed its way into more and more places, we can see over and over the same "factory engineering" approach to security: "Who would ever want to mess with X?". Well, turns out every hacker out there would want to mess with your webcam, smart tv, fridge, toaster, lights, fan, switch strip, vacuum, crane, drill, centrifuge, and everything with a processor in it... either to siphon data, for a botnet, as an entry point, for ransom, for sabotage, or just for the lulz!

As microcontrollers become cheaper, IPv6 expands to have them all publicly addressable, and people keep falling from the "controllable from your phone" into the "controllable from your AR viewer"...

Behold: Mt. ID-IoT looms ahead. 🏔️