Five Cut-Throat Smart Home Appliance Tactics That Never Fails

Data collected by clever appliances "is not safe if it's sent off to the cloud," explained Michael Patterson, CEO of both Plixer. Insert artificial intelligence, big data calculations and machine learning into the mix, along with the poor guys can launch "massive hyperfocused campaigns against specific high-value sensitive targets," he pointed out. "Adversaries can craft personalized social engineering lures related to targets' exploring patterns, interests, livelihood and vices, for example, and thereby bypass the cybersecurity and cyber-hygiene reflexes that typically thwart 86 percent of societal engineering programs." "The widespread collection, insecure storage, negligent exchange, and irresponsible usage of consumer metadata poses a direct and hyper-evolving threat to consumers, government officials, and critical infrastructure owners and operators," he told TechNewsWorld. Both the Roomba robots and iRobot's network architecture "are continually reviewed by numerous third-party safety agencies," Angle pointed out. IRobot addresses customer IoT "with the fundamental principles of security: secure data at rest, secure data in transit, secure execution, and secure updates," he said. Smart home appliances and gadgets store the data they gather in the cloud, which is not inviolate. The Swedish government recently faced an upheaval following the discovery that all Swedish citizens' data had been leaked after it was moved to a cloud run by IBM, a company. The authorities replaced two of its own ministers in an effort to quell the resulting uproar. "The company will never violate customer trust by selling or misusing customer-related data, including data collected by our connected products," Angle highlighted. Data collection is intended to offer an extra revenue stream for the maker or service supplier, in addition to improve the user's expertise, stated Blake Kozak, principal analyst at IHS Markit. Reaping the Rewards The Dangers of Cloud Storage It represents the integrity of institutions and a danger to national safety, Scott warned. The current rumor which iRobot had engaged in talks with Apple, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet to market the information its Roomba vacuum cleaner gathers caused widespread privacy issues. This trend could lead to serious threats to consumers' privacy and safety. Hackers have obtained baby monitors, for instance. Further, the United States National Security Agency has made no bones about its openness to tap the information made available by clever appliances and the Internet of Things. Also, manufacturers of smart devices who gather information "don't act on the data, and even more suggest they ... aggregate it," he noted. "The ease with which an attacker can harvest and collect demographic and psychographic data on targets is astounding," said James Scott, senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology. But, iRobot "has not had any conversations with other companies about selling data," said Colin Angle, the company's CEO. Malware diagnostic technologies from security providers "are not a surefire defense against targeted attacks," he told TechNewsWorld. "Nothing short of unplugging from the Internet can keep your data safe." "iRobot is committed to the security of our customers' data, which we take quite seriously," he said. "We build security directly into the product development process from the beginning, in the right time of ideation." That is the rumor which iRobot was discussing sale of the data alerted customer privacy advocates. However, from conversations with device manufacturers and cybersecurity specialists, "data collected by smart home devices will not be available to just any third party," IHS Markit's Kozak told TechNewsWorld. Information collection is trivial, Kozak pointed out. Reward cards, gym smartphones all collect user information and trackers. Amazon's Echo along with Google's Home voice-activated speakers monitor and collect data about users through smart home appliances and other products, as do manufacturers of smart TVs. Consumers that wish to keep their personally identifiable data safe shouldn't invest in appliances which are Internet-capable, Patterson cautioned. "No IoT device is safe from a data compromise." Anyone can collect an unbelievable amount of information on anybody just by scouring search engines on the content - Recommended Web-site - Web. Add in data gathered other gadgets that are smart and by smart house appliances, and data on customers' electricity consumption patterns gathered by smart meters, and it's possible to get a very granular picture of what's going on in someone's home. Roomba maps houses -- that the dimensions of rooms and distances between furniture and other items -- along with the data it collects will be valuable to any of the players battling to control the smart home.