[untothebreach]

One reason I haven't started adding 'Smart Devices' to my home is that I am not confident that traditional device manufacturers are thinking about security like they should. Case in point, the Belkin WeMo vulnerability[1]. Does the convenience of adding these devices to your home make up for the fact that every one you add is a potential attack vector?

1: http://hackaday.com/2013/01/31/turning-the-belkin-wemo-into-...

[dmethvin]

I agree on security, but as a more practical point the market disrupters like Nest aren't thinking about reliability or the risks of DIY installation. I have to think Honeywell weighs that differently since they're not targeting the DIY crowd, at least initially.

For example, there were many incidents in January [1] where houses with Nest thermostats malfunctioned in the middle of a serious cold snap. One reason was that the batteries went dead in some thermostats, but normally the battery shouldn't be needed in normal operation when it's wired properly. Guess what, it wasn't wired properly by the homeowner. There should be a built-in diagnosis for that.

Another reason was that Nest sent a firmware update to thermostats in early January--in the middle of a cold winter? Where was their risk assessment on that? Maybe there's little risk of frozen pipes in Palo Alto, but it's a major risk in the eastern and midwestern USA.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/06/nest-4-0-firmware-battery-p...

[untothebreach]

Yea, I live in Michigan so I am definitely glad I did not have to deal with a faulty thermostat on top of everything else the winter threw at us :).

[mikeash]

I'd like to see an analysis of the reliability of the more common type of thermostat in real-world usage. It's possible that Nest really is worse, but I also wouldn't be surprised if regular thermostats failed in stupid ways too.

[chaostheory]

On an interesting note, during the last CES Belkin announced that Wemo is going to integrate with appliances such as slow cookers and humidifiers. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

[danudey]

Welcome to Watch Dogs, where everything is online, even your grenades, whether it makes sense or not.

[untothebreach]

In all fairness to Belkin, they did correct their mistake.

But still, Belkin is a company that has sold technology products for a while now, and even they couldn't get it right.

[chaostheory]

The problem with Belkin is that they have a history of selling garbage in nice packaging with decent industrial design. Unless something changes drastically in the company's culture, I doubt their product quality will really improve.

[untothebreach]

Good point, one of the first routers I got was a belkin, and I learned quickly that they aren't reliable.

[gr3yh47]

Yes.

The internet of things is miserable from a security standpoint. The bottom line is even with a security-minded approach, we will always be behind the newest attack vector, and to make matters worse no one really takes a security minded approach.

Slightly off-topic, but this is why we shouldn't hook things like the power grid up to the internet. and i personally don't want my fridge, thermostat, and lights to be hackable