Botnets and Smart-houses: Attack on Philip’s Hue Bulbs

15

October

2017

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What is a botnet?

It is a collection of devices which are all connected to the internet, where each one is running one or more bots (autonomous program). These include any type of device that can be controlled by malware. Most of the time, the owners of these devices do not know that their devices are infected.

But why is this topic becoming more important? With more variety and cheaper devices becoming a part of ‘the internet of things’, there is a larger pool of devices which can be infected. Since many of these devices have very little security, they are easily infected and large networks are quickly made.

So, what can the hackers do with these botnets? They can take down websites with large DDoS attacks (you may have experienced these playing online games), that take down the servers by flooding their bandwidth using botnets. Secondly, they can commit click fraud, where advertisers online are led to believe people are clicking their ads. This could ultimately destroy the internet advertising model. Furthermore, they can use these their botnet network to mine bitcoins (and earn a considerable amount of money doing so).

However, another type of attack is equally frightening. The smart-LED-light system from Philips, the Philips Hue is just as vulnerable to attacks as any other device connected to the internet. These Hue lights allow the user to control their lights via the internet, with a lot of different functions. With more people adopting these type of technologies (myself included) large scale attacks can have serious effects.

Researchers from Canada were able to remotely hack hue bulbs from a distance of 70 meters using botnets, allowing them to control them. Not only is this something you obviously do not want as a consumer, but it can seriously damage an electrical grid of a densely populated area. This was all done with equipment only costing a few hundred dollars. Although the researchers worked together with Philips to improve their system, similar attacks may follow.

The Hue lights are only one aspect of a smart house. When more devices are added to your house for convenience, a hack can do a lot more damage. As a consumer who enjoys these technologies a lot, I am left to trust these large companies to improve their software to keep me protected. But to what extent can these technologies put me at risk? Are you willing to trade the risk of being hacked for the reward of  “super cool lights”?

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603500/10-breakthrough-technologies-2017-botnets-of-things/

https://www.cnet.com/news/new-study-details-a-security-flaw-with-philips-hue-smart-bulbs/

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RFID Implants: adding new functionality to your body

15

October

2017

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RFID implants, what in the world are those?

RFID, short for Radio-frequency identification, uses electromagnetic fields for identifying tags that are attached to an object. These tags, which can be as small as a grain of rice, can store information. RFID has a variety of uses such as: retail, transportation and logistics, public transport and many more.

However, a very concerning but perhaps revolutionary new use for RFID tags has risen. People such as Mr. Williams, identify themselves as “biohackers”. Biohackers are individuals who augment their physical bodies with new technologies. Williams has an RFID tag implanted into his hand, which allows him access to a variety of functions, including:

  1. He can open and unlock his door with his hand, due to the information stored in his tag.
  2. He can unlock his computer, in a similar fashion to (1).
  3. He can transfer his email details and phone number to someone’s phone by touching his hand to the phone.
  4. Purchasing food

The RFID tags use NFC (Near Field Communication) to complete these functions, much like our Dutch bank cards when we make a contactless payment. Of course, the functionality depends on the information stored in this tag, and many more useful functions can be unlocked with further development.

Many firms, such as Sweden’s EpiCentre, are offering these implants to their employees. Allowing them to still access the building when forgetting their ID cards, etc. However, this is a cause for concern for many people. Some believe companies may use these to spy on their employees, believing that it is an invasion of privacy. However, the technology is nothing revolutionary, since similar information can be stored on your phone and cards. It only adds a factor of “convenience” (of course, ignoring the pain of the implant).

Microchip implant kits can be purchased online, and it is reported that over 10,000 people are currently adopting this method of “biohacking”. Although the companies are reporting that it is voluntary, it is a scary thought that in the future this may be adopted in more companies.

Myself, I hope that microchip implants will become illegal. It almost seems like we would be treated like cattle if we had these implants storing all our information in our body. Therefore, I would like to hear your opinion on this topic. Do you believe it is even useful, when we could have these chips anywhere else (e.g. mobile phone, smartwatch)? Do you think this may be adopted in the future?

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4203148/Company-offers-RFID-microchip-implants-replace-ID-cards.html

https://www.cnet.com/news/employees-offered-rfid-chip-implants-its-voluntary-for-now/

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170731-the-surprising-truths-and-myths-about-microchip-implants

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A.I in health-care: The new application of DeepMind called ‘Streams’

12

September

2017

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What is DeepMind? DeepMind is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company founded in 2010 in the U.K. DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014. The majority of readers know DeepMind from the famous AlphaGo program that beat the world’s best Go player for the first time. However, DeepMind is said to be also currently working on health-care focused projects that can help in detecting and diagnosing diseases in the early stages.

‘DeepMind and Streams’

DeepMind has developed an application called ‘Streams’, which is aimed at solving the problem of “failure to rescue” where the right health-care professionals do not succeed in treating the patient in time. Streams aims to solve this problem, by providing a system which can immediately process test results. In the case that an issue is found, a notification is sent to alert the health-care professional to help, together with further information regarding the patient. Streams does this by using different types of data and test results from existing IT systems in the respective hospital. Streams has witnessed a lot of success, as nurses say it saves them up to ‘two hours a day’, and patients claiming to have been attended to faster.

deepmind streams

 

‘Streams and Sensitive Data’

However, Google/DeepMind has been under a lot of scrutiny due to Streams. Powles & Hodson (2017) imply that sensitive medical information has been mishandled. As mentioned earlier, Streams relies on existing information from patients to make early diagnoses. However, Streams has access to 1.6 million medical records, and this information was delivered by the National Health Service (NHS) in the U.K. through a data-sharing agreement signed in 2015. Within these medical records lie data that is irrelevant to some of Streams’ services, but critical to patients’ privacy. Therefore, some claim that access to unnecessary data should be restricted.

We know that data plays an important role in the development of A.I such as DeepMind (Machine Learning). But to what extent can A.I be implemented in health-care? How can sensitive data regarding patient’s medical records be properly handled and analyzed? Will we see more A.I in healthcare in the future, and what kind?

 

Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/08/08/the-amazing-ways-how-google-uses-deep-learning-ai/2/#50020b4d35e4
https://deepmind.com/applied/deepmind-health/about-deepmind-health/
https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/16/14932764/deepmind-google-uk-nhs-health-data-analysis
Powles, J., & Hodson, H. (2017). Google DeepMind and healthcare in an age of algorithms. Health and Technology, 1-17.

 

Deniz Ozer

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