Appliances Spying on You

For people concerned about their privacy, the NSA data grabs are daunting, but what about the data grabs happening inside your own home, perpetrated not by the government but by your internet phone or mobile applications? There are some other items in your home that have the potential to spy on you and collect data about you. Some of the connected televisions can be hacked and the personal information can be discovered. The embedded camera on the TV can also be turned on without the person knowing it. The same technology that enables monitoring of your home appliances also could allow would-be spies to monitor your lights. In addition to tracking your schedule, taking control of your home lighting system could help robbers invade your home by turning off the lights and keeping them off during an invasion. Forget about hacking your house. What about hacking your body? In 2012, White Hat hacker Barnaby Jack proved he could kill a diabetic person from 300 feet away by ordering an insulin pump to deliver fatal doses of insulin. This summer he announced he could hack pacemakers and implanted defibrillators. "These are computers that are just as exploitable as your PC or Mac, but they're not looked at as often," Jack told Bloomberg. "When you actually look at these devices, the security vulnerabilities are quite shocking."