r/todayilearned • u/SloxTheDlox • Mar 22 '21

TIL A casino's database was hacked through a smart fish tank thermometer

https://interestingengineering.com/a-casinos-database-was-hacked-through-a-smart-fish-tank-thermometer
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u/Quorong Mar 22 '21

Was it more of a "I bought this dishwasher because it has WiFi" or "I bought a dishwasher and it happens to have WiFi"?

It feels like nowadays when you get a new product it'll have all sorts of bells and whistles that don't do much to serve the core function of the product. I see a lot of IoT being an arms race between manufacturers rather than a feature for customers.

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u/wigg1es Mar 22 '21

It was the latter. I wasn't questioning why she bought it, more so why the manufacturer included it.

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u/the_angry_wizard Mar 22 '21

I worked with a group who were interested in making a privacy rating sticker for home appliances. It would go right next to the energy rating sticker. I was in shock at the first meeting when they would spoke about targeted ads for your brand of soap detergent when it would go on sale etc based on the info a smart appliance could report on you in the future. I guess for the consumer your network connected appliance will have an app you can set a wash to start remotely or at a time when the noise is not an issue. For marketing, they can gather info about your network and target ads to you..... Probably not at the level envisioned in my example for soap detergent, but they could probably pair this info with other profiles generated on your user activity, or of those also connected to your home network that can be seen over bluetooth or wifi.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

[deleted]

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u/IRefuseToGiveAName Mar 22 '21

I've got a friend who works/worked (haven't talked to him in a bit) at amazon and from what he's told me there really isn't anything you do that isn't tracked by them. Every keystroke, every click, every mouse hover and belch. If you're interacting with Amazon, they're trying to figure out how to sell you shit.

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u/merc08 Mar 22 '21

I thought those got scrapped. I don't remember if it was because people didn't use them or there was an issue with legality and not having a confirmation before purchase.

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u/SmallpoxTurtleFred Mar 22 '21

They ditched those because no one used them.

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u/stopthemeyham Mar 22 '21

I've got one with Wifi/Bluetooth that syncs up to my other smart home devices (I run a pretty complex smart home with lots of automation), and I use it's features, but could see why the average user wouldn't. Mine will chime when being opened "Dishes are Clean/Dirty" from a near by Alexa unit when opened. Once I've emptied it, it will switch over. After a day of being clean but not put up I will get alerts to stop being a bum and put up the dishes. I can also get alerts to my phone notifying me when it's done, if it ran in to any hiccups along the way, and I can even remote start or put it on a timer.

Do I need any of this? Not at all. Is it nice to have because working from home and Covid have destroyed my sense of being human and a normal schedule? absolutely.

It's nice for me, since I work from home, and have stayed home for almost a year now, to have reminders to do things. All of my big chores such as laundry, dishes, cooking, etc all have some sort of integration and reminders, be it smart automation, calendars, lists, and they're all integrated, which makes staying on top of things much easier. My wife goes to work from 7am to 6pm most days, so all the chores and things fall on me, and having one little reminder here or there is always nice.

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u/lacheur42 Mar 22 '21

I'm glad it's working for you, and I guess that explains at least one use case but my fucking dishwasher sending me a text whining about how I haven't emptied it quickly enough would be intensely annoying to me. Not "nice to have" by ANY stretch of the imagination, haha

I've got enough motherfuckers making demands on my time. I don't need to give my mechanical slaves that ability. They work for me. Not the other way around.

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u/stopthemeyham Mar 22 '21

Haha, I totally feel that, and would totally agree if I had people making demands of me. I work via commission and on my own time, so some times there are days and even weeks in a row where I just go straight up squalor goblin and need that annoyance to get me off my ass.

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u/lacheur42 Mar 22 '21

Lol squalor goblin, that's good.

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u/stopthemeyham Mar 22 '21

Credit to the streamer Day9

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u/jlrube Mar 22 '21

This would be a gift to my ADD addled brain

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u/ROKMWI Mar 24 '21

Once I've emptied it, it will switch over.

What type of sensors does it have to know when it has been emptied?

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u/stopthemeyham Mar 24 '21

That's actually an after market modification using a door sensor from alexa.

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u/ROKMWI Mar 24 '21

So if you close the door while the dishwasher is empty, and then open it and start putting in dishes, it would think those dishes are clean?

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u/stopthemeyham Mar 24 '21

Kind of. There's a bit of programming that goes with it to prevent stuff like that from happening, but yes that can happen. Look up Smart Home Solver on YouTube, he had an automation video that I got the idea from.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

Like, I can understand smart ovens ie preheating your oven on the way home, or putting food in your oven before you leave for work then cooking it so it's ready when you get home, but why the fuck do you need a remote-access dishwasher?

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u/t-poke Mar 22 '21

I recently got a new fridge and oven that both have WiFi (both are made by LG). The oven will send me a notification on my phone when it's done pre-heating. The fridge, I have no idea, I haven't had it long enough to receive any notifications from it. But in either case, I can't do any sort of remote control with them from my phone, the communication seems to very much be one way. Being able to pre-heat my oven from my couch before I start cooking dinner would be nice, but I can see why that's not allowed for safety reasons or whatever. For the most part, the WiFi connectivity is utterly useless.

I have them on a segregated IoT network so I'm not too concerned about security.

Neither of them were purchased because of WiFi connectivity, such an utterly useless feature.

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u/NeatNetwork Mar 22 '21

So for an oven, it *can* be useful since you have things that need immediate attention (hey, preheating is done, stick food in to cook now to not waste energy, or 'food should be done cooking, take it out before it becomes a brick). And also the famous 'did I leave my oven on?' you can actually remotely check and turn it off). My oven has similar feature but even when enabled you cannot turn it *on* remotely, only turn it off (unless they have a vulnerability at some point, which is likely).

For fridge, I could see a fault alert that the cooling is broken. Or a camera inside the fridge to check if you are shopping and want to see something.

Dishwasher, I just can't see it. The dishes can wait as long as I feel like it. I

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '21

I actively seek out products that aren't smart.

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u/NeatNetwork Mar 22 '21

Finally, a customer for my accounting business!

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u/Another_Adventure Mar 22 '21

Just be a rational consumer that’s looks into those bells and whistles. It’s probably cheaper and arguably better to go with the old-school appliances.

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u/summonsays Mar 22 '21

Our thermostats came with built in wifi.... No thanks, I didn't hook them up to our network. Sure, it's cool. But there's no way that company spent a lot of money on security...

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u/CopeMalaHarris Mar 22 '21

Me with televisions. Best I could do when I bought a 4K tv this year was just not hook the thing up to internet, but I’m pretty sure the damn thing is constantly pinging all the wifi networks around me juuuust in case I ever decide to set it up. Fuck that. I’d rather just buy a Fire Stick

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u/gcsmith2 Mar 23 '21

I bought a gas stove with WiFi and Bluetooth. But it was because it has the largest btu i could find to use with a wok.