Items tagged with IoT
In recent years, we've seen a number of garden variety consumer electronics devices -- including routers and webcams among others -- that have been sucked into zombie botnets to wreak havoc around the globe. Many of those devices were accessible due to extremely weak passwords that were enacted by default by their manufacturers. California, however, is looking to change this and has passed a law that would require all internet-connected device sold in the state to have a unique "strong" password. This unique password would be obtained in one of two ways as outlined by the "Information...
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Google is rolling out a couple of new products aimed at helping customers build and deploy intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) devices at scale. One of those products is the Edge TPU (tensor processing unit), a tiny hardware chip designed to muscle through machine learning tasks in IoT gadgets, and the other is Cloud IoT Edge, a software stack that extends Google's Cloud AI to gateways and connected devices. Used together, Google's two new products enable customers to build and train machine learning models in the cloud, then run those models on the Cloud IoT Edge device through the power of the...
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TP-Link has been making mesh routers in the Deco range for a while now that are designed to give you WiFi access all around a home or office. Last year, the company launched the Deco M5 mesh router and now the company has announced the new Deco M9 Plus. This mesh router is notable because in addition to offering WiFi coverage, it also has an integrated smart home hub for IoT devices. The M9 Plus supports AC2200 speeds and tri-band WiFi with dedicated 5GHz backhaul for faster speeds and dependable connectivity for over 100 devices across the entire home. The router uses TP-Link Mesh technology to...
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Intel is looking to become a big player in the 5G wireless revolution that it set to sweep the globe in the coming years. As a result, the company is giving an update on its wireless modem roadmap, which includes extensions of its existing 4G LTE products and upcoming 5G-based SKUs that will ship within the next two years. On the 4G LTE front, Intel's current top-shelf modem is the XMM 7480, which supports 4x carrier aggregation and download/upload speeds of 600Mbps and 150Mbps respectively (it’s prominently used in AT&T/T-Mobile versions of Apple’s iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone...
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We first got a glimpse at the BlueBorne vulnerability back in September, when it was revealed that that Bluetooth-based attack vector was exploitable on phones, computers, and IoT devices -- basically, anything with a Bluetooth radio. BlueBorne was especially nasty since it is capable of man-in-the-middle attacks and remote code execution. It was initially revealed that both Windows- and iOS-based devices had been updated to defend against BlueBorne, while Android device manufacturers should have already delivered updates to address the exploit. However, we're now learning about another category...
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A security firm is warning of a new botnet targeting IoT (Internet of Things) devices that is on the move. Dubbed IoT_reaper, the new botnet borrows some of the source code from Mirai, which took down the popular security blog KrebsOnSecurity with a massive DDoS attack, ultimately forcing Brian Krebs, the security expert in charge of the blog, to find a new hosting company and seek shelter behind Google Shield for DDoS protection. Unfortunately, it is believed that this new strain called Reaper could be even more virulent than Mirai. Whereas Mirai was able to spread by cracking weak passwords on...
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There are lots of obvious examples of how IoT (Internet of Things) connected and smart devices can enrich our lives. However, as we've noted numerous times over the past year, there are a number of caveats that can also come with them. The glaring issue of course has to do with security, or the lack of it really. And perhaps the absolute lack of ownership certain manufacturers take with it and their products. Research firm Radware once helps underscore the glaring need for better IoT security with some hard proof about what we're dealing with. Employing a "honeypot" approach...
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While college basketball teams around the country are gearing up for conference tournaments, which then lead into March Madness, the folks at Nike are working on technology that would make it easier for teams to keep track of athletes’ performance metrics in real-time, record stats and make informed decisions about player substitutions. As beneficial as this tech could be for teams monitors their multi-million dollar franchise players, it could be also be an [entertainment value] boon for fans to get an even more nuanced look at their favorite players. This information is provided to us...
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Take a look at your printer. Give it a good stare. Do you trust it? Probably not, considering it jammed the last time you had to print an important paper right up against a deadline. However, what if we told you that your printer just has to sit there on your network to be a very serious security problem? HP Inc. recently hosted a tech field day for us, and several other security-focused journalists, at their headquarters in Palo Alto. We will speak to some of the panels we listened in on as we go, but the goal for HP at this event was to raise awareness around security - particularly where printers...
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When ransomware strikes, its impact could range from mild to severe. Sometimes, ransomware targets regular users, while other times, it targets important mega-corporations (or even police stations). In this latest incident, it affected a hotel, and subsequently ran the risk of affecting all of its guests. Here it is, the downright gorgeous Romantik Seehotel Jägerwirt in Austria. Staying at a place like this is the stuff dreams are made of. It could feel like paradise on Earth; certainly not a place where you'd expect to have to deal with the major hassle of being locked out of your room against...
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Anyone who owns an Amazon Alexa-powered device can usually tell you that it's quite useful to keep around, which is why they bought it in the first place. However, with "smart" IoT devices, there's always a chance that something will go awry, and we're not just talking about the usual device lockups or software quirks. One family found this out the hard way. If parents find Alexa so charming and fun to talk to, it's a sure thing that the evolving mind of a toddler will as well. The problem is that a toddler's speech is ever-evolving, and words they do end up uttering with any kind of clarity could...
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"Hey, Cortana. Should I really eat that last piece of cheesecake in the fridge?" You might laugh now, but soon, that kind of question could become a reality, as Microsoft is looking to infuse as many of the forthcoming IoT devices with not just Windows 10, but its Cortana AI assistant, as well. At Microsoft's WinHEC conference in Shenzhen last week, the company detailed its Windows 10 IoT editions, of which there are three depending on the type of device in use. For serious equipment, like robotics, there's Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, while for things like POS...
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If you're a little timid of talking to an electronic device, you better suck it up soon, because it looks like it's going to be such a big part of our future as the "new normal". Solutions like Google's Conversation Actions are going to make these interactions possible. With Conversation Actions, smart algorithms are able to pick up on keywords to help give a reasoned response. An example of this can be seen below, where a user asks Google Home for dinner suggestions. The words "hot", "soup", "fast", "chicken", and "tomato" are plucked from the sentence, and without much of a delay, a tomato chicken...
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Over the past few months, we’ve witnessed the Mirai botnet wreak havoc with IoT devices like consumer webcams, DVRs and security cameras. These often budget-minded devices were often equipped with insecure software or employed security countermeasures that were easily overpowered. However, we’re learning today that it isn’t just cheap consumer devices that are susceptible to attacks — even high-end equipment can be compromised if a hacker has enough motivation to dig for exploits. Such is the case with Sony’s professional grade IPELA Engine IP cameras. According to SEC Consult, a backdoor was found...
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