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  Geebo 9:00 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 103 ), cybersecurity ( 34 ), internet of things/ ( 7 ), IoT ( 7 ), Ring Doorbells, security ( 46 )   

  Is your Ring doorbell at risk of attack? 

  

  Ring Doorbells have become very popular over the past few years. Not only does it offer the convenience of knowing who’s at your door while you’re not home, but it also records any interaction that occurs at your front door. With the assistance of Ring Doorbells, all sorts of interlopers have been caught ranging from porch pirates to home intruders. They’ve become so popular and ubiquitous that police stations around the country are recommending residents install one and become part of a police network of cameras. So, it should come as no surprise that bad actors may want access to your camera.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf3wLc0giZI%5D

  Amazon, owners of Ring, recently announced that there was a vulnerability in Ring Doorbells that could have exposed your wifi password to attackers. During the authentication process, the communication between your doorbell and the was unencrypted leaving your wifi password open in plain text and potentially available to hackers. While any attack wouldn’t be able to control the camera itself, once your home wifi is vulnerable an attacker could compromise any number of systems especially if you have a number of smart home or internet of things (IoT) devices.

  Thankfully, Amazon patched this vulnerability before they made it public knowledge. That’s not even taking into account that any attack against the doorbell would have to happen at the precise moment of authentication and the attacker would need to be in range of your home wifi. The chances of a hacker being on your property at the time of authentication are very slim. However, this does show that no smart home or internet-enabled security device is foolproof. When purchasing such a device, do your research in finding out which ones are the most secure and which ones receive regular updates from the manufacturer. Otherwise, you could be as secure as leaving your front door unlocked.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 9, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Airbnb ( 13 ), FDA, glucose meters, hate groups, hate speech ( 14 ), healthcare ( 35 ), Ring Doorbells, test strips, theft ( 6 ), video doorbells   

  FDA warns about test strips, video doorbells being stolen, and Airbnb to ban hate groups 

  

  If you happen to have a condition where the use of glucose meters and test strips are required, the FDA has issued a warning about using pre-owned test strips that you may find for sale online. While there has not been a report of these strips impacting anybody’s health negatively yet, the FDA warns against the practice of purchasing pre-owned strips as they could potentially give out incorrect readings which could lead to imbalances in the delicate measurement of medicine required to aid in keeping your condition under control. While it may seem like a way to save money, the FDA is also saying that some of these strips have been banned from the US as they’ve been known to cause infections. The mixing and matching of meters and test strips is something the FDA has been trying to discourage for years.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo9BQIRBF48%5D

  If you have a video doorbell designed to keep thieves away from your front door, you may be facing a new issue lately. it’s now being reported that a rash of video doorbell thefts have been occurring in many major population centers across the US. Even though the higher-end doorbells have been recording the thefts, there haven’t been an equal amount of arrests. This is due to the fact that either police do not have the resources to track down every doorbell thief or that the thieves are disguising themselves before stealing the items. As can be expected with most stolen items, they can end up for sale online. Both of the major manufacturers of these types of doorbells, Ring and Nest, both have programs to assist customers whose devices have been stolen. However, it is always recommended that you contact the police first.

  Gizmodo is reporting that Airbnb is actively trying to dissuade and in some cases outright banning hate groups from using their service. A convention being held by hate groups as designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center later this year. Gizmodo brought it to the attention of Airbnb that many attendees of the convention had planned to use Airbnb while participating at the convention. Airbnb has said that these hate groups violate their community standards and will look to enforce that policy and have already banned several well-known members of these groups. How Airbnb will choose to keep these groups from using their services in the future remains to be seen.

   
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  Geebo 10:19 am on January 11, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: privacy ( 46 ), Ring Doorbells, security ( 46 )   

  Ring doorbells caught in potential privacy gaffe 

  

  If you’re unfamiliar with the Ring brand of video doorbells it’s actually an ingenious device. The doorbell not only has a built-in camera but also has built-in two-way communication. When someone rings your doorbell, not only can you see them through an app on your phone or tablet but you can also talk to them as if you were home. Many homeowners swear by the devices as if it was the answer to solving any potential security concerns. Privacy, on the other hand, may now be a completely different matter.

  It’s being widely reported that Ring gave unfettered access to customer cameras and recorded videos to their researchers in Ukraine. Not only that but that the video recordings sent to Ring through their cloud service were unencrypted in an effort to cut costs. While some Ring customers may not care who sees their video feed in Ukraine it also turns out that some US Ring employees and executives had around the clock access to some live feeds from customers whether their job required them to have the access or not. These allegations become even more disturbing when you realize that Ring also sells security cameras for inside the home as well.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qklIhlyO6ZU&t=44s%5D

  Ring themselves have claimed that no impropriety has been taken part in by their employees, however, the reports state that Ring employees found workarounds to the company blocking their employees from certain access. Not only does this not bode well for Ring but also for its parent company Amazon who purchased the company in 2018. Amazon itself is no stranger to privacy concerns with the company trying to sell allegedly invasive facial recognition software to several law enforcement agencies last year. It will be interesting to see if this alleged breach of privacy will catch the eye of legislators or whether or not the market will control the future of Ring going forward.