The current upward trend in smart appliance adoption might resemble similar historic trends seen with PCs and smartphones. At this early stage of the adoption process, we might think that the smart devices in our home are safe, but what do we really know about them? In his VB2014 paper, Jeong Wook Oh discusses the current security status of popular smart home appliances (TVs, thermostats and surveillance cameras), shares his findings from reverse engineering those devices and analysing their defences, and elaborates on possible ways to mitigate future threats on these increasingly popular platforms.
The latest VB100 comparative on the evergreen Windows 7 resulted in a pleasingly high success rate with just a few products failing to make the grade for certification - John Hawes has the details.