As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow and we start to see companies bring everything from doorbells to pregnancy tests into the fold, we’re sure to see the bad about IoT along with the good. In a recent example, hackers were able to access the personal Wi-Fi of Ring doorbell users just by removing the device from its mount and pressing a button. The Ring doorbell is secured to your home with two proprietary screws which can be removed given patience and time. Of course you can also just rip the doorbell off the wall as well. But once the culprit has the Ring in hand it’s just a matter of pressing the orange button to put Ring into AP mode. Before we move on, it is important to note that Ring was notified of the vulnerability before it went public and has since pushed an update to their hardware to fix the issue.
The door mounting has a conspicuous orange button that turns Ring’s Wi-Fi module into AP mode, which means that computers can connect to it like a hotspot. Once that’s accomplished, however, visiting a simple URL will immediately display the Wi-Fi SSID as well as its password in plain text for anyone to see. And once those have been pilfered, hackers can easily get access to that Wi-Fi connection to do real damage.
With the amount of products companies are pushing into IoT and at the eye blurring rate they’re doing it, we’re sure to see more of these security issues continue to pop up. While most of us who read websites such as ours love technology, I think we can all agree: Some companies need to slow down, assess their products carefully, and make sure the first thing on their mind is security. IoT devices can be useful, though some are downright stupid, but companies need more R&D on the information security side of IoT before they start hocking their wares.
What do you think of information security in IoT? Are companies jumping the gun before considering the security risks? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.slashgear.com/update-your-ring-smart-doorbell-to-protect-your-wi-fi-13423005/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Slashgear[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
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