The Cybercrime of Things

Once everything in your house contains a computer, everything in your house can be hacked.

Recent work by security researchers indicates that one of the problems with having a “smart” home is that some day, it might be smart enough to attack you. The essence of the forthcoming “internet of things” is that everything we own, from our refrigerators and egg cartons to our cars and thermostats, will some day be outfitted with internet-connected sensors and control systems, allowing all our possessions, and ultimately all of our civic infrastructure, to communicate with each other and be controlled remotely.

The potential security implications of this future are fairly obvious: Imagine if the same hackers that are stealing our credit card numbers suddenly had the ability to take over or at least monitor just about every device in reach. But to date, thinking through the specifics has been tricky. Here, then, is a handy guide to the basic vulnerabilities we’ll be adding to our lives once we have connected all of our worldly goods to the internet of things:

Direct attacks that force objects to exceed their design parameters or operate in ways that are unpleasant or dangerous.

Read the Full Article over at TheAtlantic.com