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Death of the Internet ?

There will always be vulnerabilities in technology but I can't see that ever stopping its spread.

Wifi has vulnerabilities (evil twin attack gets your devices to tell the attacker your passwords with no code cracking)... car keyless entry systems can be triggered with radio amplifiers pinging the real key... you name it there seem to be ways to attack it but people keep using tech because it is convenient. Maybe when the percentage of victims gets a lot higher you may be on to something but I don't see it for some while yet.
 
Did you read the article, Robert ?

We're not talking about a few oddball exploits that affect the odd person and are usually more of an academic curiosity.

One only has to look at past history. For many years when PC's came out, their security was really poor. Gradually software companies and manufacturers woke up to with companies like Norton springing up into existence. The trouble was that many PC users were/are too stupid/lazy/mean to stay on top of malware. While it is just their own bank accounts that are getting hacked and emptied, the immediate effect is only on them but the real problem are botnets since they can reek havoc with DDoS attacks. As in the case of the article I referred to. If we didn't have thick/stupid/lazy/mean PC users then there would most likely be no botnets.

But now we have this plethora of poorly secured IoT devices and there will be more and more of the wretched things. So botnets will get larger and larger and the DDoS attacks far more severe. OK - many companies have strategies in place to try and mitigate the effects of these but there still is an impact on their websites and also the additional traffic over the internet. Enough botnets and even those defences will be overwhelmed.
 
I did read it and semi smart devices being used in that way is not surprising. The effort put in to fixing these vulnerabilities is usually in proportion to how big a problem they cause so as effects increase I'd expect security efforts to improve...but always be one step behind. Can't see the internet getting shut down any time soon. It has always been a battleground between hackers and security specialists.
 
We will have to disagree then. I think you are missing the point that

(a) there is no incentive for manufacturers to improve their security

(b) given the product life-cycle of most of these IoT devices, there is simply no time to do this and neither is there the willingness to fix any security holes. They can't even be bothered to fix issues that affect the users of these devices ...and so security is way, way down their list of priorities.

(c) it is the sheer number of IoT things that will be out there that is the problem. For example, look at this graph

deviceforecast-1.png
or to put it into words

"The IoT will account for an increasingly huge number of connections: 1.9 billion devices today, and 9 billion by 2018. That year, it will be roughly equal to the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers, and PCs combined."

And you don't see this is a huge potential risk ? :shock:
 
You may jest, Doug, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.

I don't know how much you use the internet but just imagine trying to log on to your bank to pay a supplier or get payment from a customer. But you can't. So you then try ringing telephone banking. But you can't get through because everyone else is trying to ring in.

Your emails stop (although some might say that that was a good thing). You are trying to complete on a house but the funds can't get through. Or you're housebound and trying to order your online groceries. Or a repeat prescription.

But you can't. Why? Because people are stupid enough to want to buy a lightbulb that they can turn on remotely with their f*****g phone.
 
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