The Dangerous New World of Self-Surveillance

[hanselthecaretaker]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/verkada-hack-surveillance-risk/

The hackers gained access on Monday and were able to view real-time footage and watch the full collection of customers’ saved videos, Kottmann said. The company was alerted by Bloomberg News and closed the breach the following day.

“It still feels incredibly surreal the amount of foothold I was able to gain from this,” Kottmann said. “That’s the irony of this whole thing: All the cool features they provide for security are exactly why everything broke.”


Note to self: Verify any future door cam purchase has a private wifi option. And watch what you say around Alexa for good measure.

 

[tippy2k2]

Yeah, a lot of that kind of stuff has me a little....iffy about it all. I suppose ultimately maybe I'm just fooling myself considering we are all walking around with a Tracking Device/Microphone/Video Camera on us at all times (or at least the vast vast vast majority of us have smart phones) but I always found it kind of weird to have cameras all over your house.

I have actually considered getting a RING (camera doorbell) but that's probably the closest thing to a camera in my house I'd ever get. Being able to track packages and whatnot would be nice and if someone does end up breaking in, it's likely they'd at some point have to have been spotted on that camera. My Mum ADORES her Alexa thing so maybe it's the kind of thing that I think is super dumb until I actually get one but I just don't really see how much more convenient it is to say ALEXA; PLAY MY SAD AND LONELY CRYING TIME PLAYLIST as opposed to clicking on it on my phone...

 

[Agema]

Note to self: Verify any future door cam purchase has a private wifi option. And watch what you say around Alexa for good measure.

I have to say, I find the concept of pretty much my entire house being connected to and controllable by my mobile phone quite exciting in a tech-geek sort of way, but the dull pragmatist in me screams that it's just another way for companies to make a profit off our private information and hackers to fuck with us.

 

[Kae]

It is extremely funny to me that all my fears from when I was in High School are real now and I somehow find myself completely indifferent to it.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

1 Simple rule I stick by for any tech that looks super cool and/or handy is: if it requires internet to function, it can kindly fuck off.

 

[Gordon_4]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/verkada-hack-surveillance-risk/

The hackers gained access on Monday and were able to view real-time footage and watch the full collection of customers’ saved videos, Kottmann said. The company was alerted by Bloomberg News and closed the breach the following day.

“It still feels incredibly surreal the amount of foothold I was able to gain from this,” Kottmann said. “That’s the irony of this whole thing: All the cool features they provide for security are exactly why everything broke.”


Note to self: Verify any future door cam purchase has a private wifi option. And watch what you say around Alexa for good measure.

Alternatively, don't be a cheap asshole and get a proper closed circuit option.

 

[Schadrach]

I have to say, I find the concept of pretty much my entire house being connected to and controllable by my mobile phone quite exciting in a tech-geek sort of way, but the dull pragmatist in me screams that it's just another way for companies to make a profit off our private information and hackers to fuck with us.

I've actually got a Nest Thermostat, some Hue lights and a Nest x Yale lock. I literally say to my phone "Hey Google, kill the lights and lock the front door" before I go to sleep just in case I left something on or unlocked.

Someone asked me when I was installing the lock two weeks ago if I was worried someone might hack the lock to get inside and my answer was "as opposed to a standard deadbolt that a drunk with a wiggly bit of wire can open nondestructively? Let's be honest, if they want in bad enough they'll either break a window or just kick the door in."

One thing that's kind of nice is that you can assign temporary or permanent guest codes, say if you're going to be out for a while and need someone to feed your pets, or have a houseguest for a bit, want someone to have a code in case of emergency, or whatever. Codes can be set to expire or only be valid at certain times of day, so you don't have to worry who might end up with permanent access because you lent them a key that one time and they swung by a hardware store before returning it. It also keeps logs of when it's locked and unlocked, and if unlocked from the outside by whom. It's also got a privacy mode that locks the door and doesn't allow guest codes to open it.

If Google can glean anything useful from knowing that I keep my living room lights at ~33% brightness and my wife keeps the one in her office at around 50%, how often someone locks and unlocks the door, or what temperature range I keep the house, good on them.

 

[ObsidianJones]

It is extremely funny to me that all my fears from when I was in High School are real now and I somehow find myself completely indifferent to it.

It's the Walking Dead Effect.

Think about the sheer horror we would all have if right now, people died, came back, and started to eat at the flesh of the living.

That they seemed to feel no pain, they couldn't be reasoned with, and they could only be killed by a shot to the head.

The fear that all of us have this virus in us. That will make us all zombies. And that we're never going to be done with this.

Those first few nights, weeks, and months would be the stuff of nightmares.

Then you get on to your third year, and you got your system down. You remember old times, but because of your short term memory, you have just as much as readily accessible memories of this new life.

Ten years pass. There are still zombies. Yeah, but what about that new neighbor of yours? He keeps playing Trip hop at 3 o'clock at night. He's such a jerk.

We get used to stuff really easily. See the same for the post terrorist world, Trump and the decline of the MAGA party, Gangsta rap music, etc.

 

[Gergar12]

If only one person who isn't an asshole would start a smartphone where I don't get spied on, then branch out into another tech-based consumer product.

And no that company isn't Apple.

 

[Gordon_4]

If only one person who isn't an asshole would start a smartphone where I don't get spied on, then branch out into another tech-based consumer product.

And no that company isn't Apple.

For most of their functions to work, they need two way communication. As long as that happens, it will be able to be tapped into.

 

[Agema]

Someone asked me when I was installing the lock two weeks ago if I was worried someone might hack the lock to get inside and my answer was "as opposed to a standard deadbolt that a drunk with a wiggly bit of wire can open nondestructively? Let's be honest, if they want in bad enough they'll either break a window or just kick the door in."

Yes, agree. Although really, a good door/lock will stop 99% of criminals - something hackable seems likely to introduce vulnerability over that.

I remember once I'd gone out without my keys and all my flatmates had gone out, so I couldn't get in. I was wondering if I could open the door by reaching through the letterbox (it was close to the latch) and some neighbours called the police thinking I was trying to break in. The police rocked up, I explained I wasn't a burglar, I'd just locked myself out. A policeman asked me if the mortice deadlock was also on, I said probably not, and he whipped out a creased beermat, wiggled it between the door and frame around the latch, and the door opened. And he recommended we get a better lock. It can be that easy.

And yet the sort of people who burgle regular houses are overwhelmingly the latter sorts of people you say: they are so chaotic, lazy, stupid or drug-addled that skill and finesse is out of their league. They exploit unlocked doors and windows, or use brute force. Part of the reason they're criminals in the first place is that they are so generally useless they can't even hold down a McJob, and that inadequacy extends to their criminal skills. A gang were stealing cars in our area a few years ago. They waited for people to leave their houses early in the morning to go to work, beat the crap out of them and stole their car keys. Geniuses they ain't.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

In which it is once again demonstrated that "the cloud" is just a fancy term for someone else's computers, where it stops being "your security" and starts being "their security".

 

[Agema]

In which it is once again demonstrated that "the cloud" is just a fancy term for someone else's computers, where it stops being "your security" and starts being "their security".

Funny one, though isn't it. Their security is probably a damn sight better than yours. On the other hand, they're a much bigger target that attracts much more attention. I do wonder whether there will be inevitable hacks and leaks, and the data will be sold online to organised crime, who (assuming at least the house entry is digital) may just stroll in as they please.

 

[Schadrach]

Yes, agree. Although really, a good door/lock will stop 99% of criminals - something hackable seems likely to introduce vulnerability over that.

The Nest X Yale lock, like most other electronic locks by Yale doesn't take a traditional key. So it's potentially hackable but not subject to traditional picking. It's also a deadbolt and not subject to being jimmied by a credit card or similar.

And I said "a drunk guy with a wiggly bit of metal" because I have a friend who can pick a typical deadbolt with improvised picks while thoroughly intoxicated (by which I mean at least a liter of Wild Turkey in) in less than a minute.

But yeah, in any case someone wanting to break in to my house will likely either hit the door hard enough to break the strike plate on the deadbolt or break the large window in my living room, pull the block of wood out that's there as a stop, slide it open and go in that way. My other windows are high enough to need a ladder and small enough to be inconvenient to climb in.

 

[Agema]

But yeah, in any case someone wanting to break in to my house will likely either hit the door hard enough to break the strike plate on the deadbolt or break the large window in my living room, pull the block of wood out that's there as a stop, slide it open and go in that way. My other windows are high enough to need a ladder and small enough to be inconvenient to climb in.

Someone kicked our front door in a couple of years back. By which I mean a kid kicked the door on Halloween, and it turns out the people who owned the house previously hadn't done a very good job screwing in the doorframe catch on the Yale lock properly. They'd clearly replaced it at some point, but the wood was damaged and not properly repaired, so one mediocre kick and the weakened part of the frame splintered. We were in the house at the time, the kids - probably surprised as hell the door broke open - just ran.

I did I think a pretty thorough temporary repair job by chiselling out the damaged section and replacing with a fitted block of wood plus nails and glue etc., but as so often happens I got distracted by other stuff and it's turned out not-so-temporary. I think one of the first things we're going to do when Covid controls end is replace the whole door (which is surprisingly weedy) - possibly the doorframe too.