Prompted by “IoT Security Is So Bad, There’s a Search Engine For Sleeping Kids”: http://search.slashdot.org/story/16/01/24/0256224/iot-security-is-so-bad-theres-a-search-engine-for-sleeping-kids
Shodan, a search engine for the Internet of Things (IoT), recently launched a new section that lets users easily browse vulnerable webcams. The feed includes images of marijuana plantations, back rooms of banks, children, kitchens, living rooms, garages, front gardens, back gardens, ski slopes, swimming pools, colleges and schools, laboratories, and cash register cameras in retail stores. While IoT manufacturers are to blame, this also highlights the creepy stuff you can do with Shodan these days. At the start of January, Check Point recommended companies to block Shodan’s crawlers. The infosec community came to defend Shodan, and even its founder said that Shodan is uselessly branded as a tool of evil, saying that attackers have their own scanning tools.
I wholeheartedly agree that Shodan isn’t the problem, but a convenient listing of severe warnings towards an excessively apathetic humanity.
The runaway train known as “technological advancement” is wildly rooting itself into our lives with virtually no concern over privacy and security.
The market should be effectively begging for companies to sell products and services primarily built for privacy and security. Then the failure of privacy protection and/or security also triggers the failure of the accountable company due to serious credibility loss.
By far the greatest threat and tragedy is humanity’s inability to properly identify and responsibly address serious threats basically disguised as boring and lame.
A child wielding a loaded gun with the safety turned off triggers the brain’s serious warning system towards responsible action.
Surreptitious violations involving privacy and/or security presented as righteous (largely with thanks to marketing spin) does not.
By the way, a hideously evil law (even just superficially) publicly presented as righteous also does not.
While a child with an easily fired gun is indeed an emergency worth responsibly addressing, the maximum damage possible in that case pales by comparison with the many (perhaps millions of) lives harmed from dangerous law and/or technology.
But the warning formed by this post probably bypasses any sense of emergency.
I am an honest freak (or reasonably responsibly balanced "misfit", if you prefer) of an artist working and resting to best carefully contribute towards helping society. Too many people abuse reasoning (e.g. 'partial truth = whole truth' scam), while I exercise reason to explore and express whole truth without any conflict-of-interest -- all within a sometimes offbeat style of psychedelic artistry.
Spirit Wave Journal 
Leave a Reply