An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Denis Grisak, the man behind the Internet-connected garage opener Garadget, is having a very bad week. Grisak and his Colorado-based company SoftComplex launched Garadget, a device built using Wi-Fi-based cloud connectivity from Particle, on Indiegogo earlier this year, hitting 209 percent of his launch goal in February. But this week, his response to an unhappy customer has gotten Garadget a totally different sort of attention. On April 1, a customer who purchased Garadget on Amazon using the name R. Martin reported problems with the iPhone application that controls Garadget. He left an angry comment on the Garadget community board: "Just installed and attempting to register a door when the app started doing this. Have uninstalled and reinstalled iPhone app, powered phone off/on - wondering what kind of piece of shit I just purchased here..." Shortly afterward, not having gotten a response, Martin left a 1-star review of Garadget on Amazon: "Junk - DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY - iPhone app is a piece of junk, crashes constantly, start-up company that obviously has not performed proper quality assurance tests on their products." Grisak then responded by bricking Martin's product remotely, posting on the support forum: "Martin, The abusive language here and in your negative Amazon review, submitted minutes after experiencing a technical difficulty, only demonstrates your poor impulse control. I'm happy to provide the technical support to the customers on my Saturday night but I'm not going to tolerate any tantrums. At this time your only option is return Garadget to Amazon for refund. Your unit ID 2f0036... will be denied server connection."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Denis Grisak, the man behind the Internet-connected garage opener Garadget, is having a very bad week. Grisak and his Colorado-based company SoftComplex launched Garadget, a device built using Wi-Fi-based cloud connectivity from Particle, on Indiegogo earlier this year, hitting 209 percent of his launch goal in February. But this week, his response to an unhappy customer has gotten Garadget a totally different sort of attention. On April 1, a customer who purchased Garadget on Amazon using the name R. Martin reported problems with the iPhone application that controls Garadget. He left an angry comment on the Garadget community board: "Just installed and attempting to register a door when the app started doing this. Have uninstalled and reinstalled iPhone app, powered phone off/on - wondering what kind of piece of shit I just purchased here..." Shortly afterward, not having gotten a response, Martin left a 1-star review of Garadget on Amazon: "Junk - DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY - iPhone app is a piece of junk, crashes constantly, start-up company that obviously has not performed proper quality assurance tests on their products." Grisak then responded by bricking Martin's product remotely, posting on the support forum: "Martin, The abusive language here and in your negative Amazon review, submitted minutes after experiencing a technical difficulty, only demonstrates your poor impulse control. I'm happy to provide the technical support to the customers on my Saturday night but I'm not going to tolerate any tantrums. At this time your only option is return Garadget to Amazon for refund. Your unit ID 2f0036... will be denied server connection."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Industrial control systems are sensitive systems that must make decisions in real time to ensure the operation of the industrial process they govern. The latency and reliability in packet transmission is fundamental, since the protocols are connection-oriented but because of the main speed goal, many of them do not have included error recovery schemes other than those included in the TCP / IP stack.

Where is it possible to use encryption without affecting the operation of the industrial control process? Here are some examples:

• Power Transmission systems: The most critical communications that electrical systems have are the protections that activate the switches that handle the events of overloads in the transmission lines. Orders that are delivered to these devices can not exceed 12 ms roundtrip. Protocols such as IEEE C37.94 unfortunately still do not support encryption functionalities by default and because latency in a communications channel can easily exceed 12 ms by numerous factors that are normally seasonal and do not involve malfunctions of the platform Of communications, the use of encryption is not recommended because of the risks involved for the operation of the system. For all other communications using protocols like IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850 and DNP3, the crypto extensions detailed in IEC 62351 are recommended. For all other protocols that does not include a security standard like modbus, hardware crypto boxes or VPN devices works great.
• Water and gas systems: The most critical communications for the system are in the water catchment, pipes, tanks and potabilization plants. The orders sent to the RTU are not completed immediately and might take event minutes to finalize. Protocols like DNP3, BSAP and Modbus are able to handle some milliseconds (even 50) without any impact to the industrial process. In these systems, hardware crypto or VPN devices can be used

Manuel Humberto Santander Pel margin-right:0cm">SANS Internet Storm Center Handler

(c) SANS Internet Storm Center. https://isc.sans.edu Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Industrial control systems are sensitive systems that must make decisions in real time to ensure the operation of the industrial process they govern. The latency and reliability in packet transmission is fundamental, since the protocols are connection-oriented but because of the main speed goal, many of them do not have included error recovery schemes other than those included in the TCP / IP stack.

Where is it possible to use encryption without affecting the operation of the industrial control process? Here are some examples:

• Power Transmission systems: The most critical communications that electrical systems have are the protections that activate the switches that handle the events of overloads in the transmission lines. Orders that are delivered to these devices can not exceed 12 ms roundtrip. Protocols such as IEEE C37.94 unfortunately still do not support encryption functionalities by default and because latency in a communications channel can easily exceed 12 ms by numerous factors that are normally seasonal and do not involve malfunctions of the platform Of communications, the use of encryption is not recommended because of the risks involved for the operation of the system. For all other communications using protocols like IEC 60870-5-104, IEC 61850 and DNP3, the crypto extensions detailed in IEC 62351 are recommended. For all other protocols that does not include a security standard like modbus, hardware crypto boxes or VPN devices works great.
• Water and gas systems: The most critical communications for the system are in the water catchment, pipes, tanks and potabilization plants. The orders sent to the RTU are not completed immediately and might take event minutes to finalize. Protocols like DNP3, BSAP and Modbus are able to handle some milliseconds (even 50) without any impact to the industrial process. In these systems, hardware crypto or VPN devices can be used

Manuel Humberto Santander Pel margin-right:0cm">SANS Internet Storm Center Handler

(c) SANS Internet Storm Center. https://isc.sans.edu Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

According to new research commissioned by smart home software and hardware brand Wink, 34 percent of Americans believe it would cost $5,000 or more to turn their home into a smart home. An article on USA Today adds: It's a stark contrast from Wink's real world user data: Of the company's 2.7 million users, the average person starts with just 4 smart devices, and spends about $200. The information comes from a report Wink has dubbed their Smart Home Index, released today, in which more than 2,000 U.S. adults were surveyed by a team at Harris Poll. Aside from the cost misconception, a few other key insights rose to the top. For example, the adoption rate disparities across gender lines and income lines have almost disappeared. 43 percent of connected device buyers are now women, and 20 percent of all households with income under $50,000 per year have purchased a connected product. Of those that did purchase a smart home device, energy savings was the most frequently cited reason for doing so, followed by security. Only 33 percent of buyers expressed a desire to monitor or control their homes while away.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to new research commissioned by smart home software and hardware brand Wink, 34 percent of Americans believe it would cost $5,000 or more to turn their home into a smart home. An article on USA Today adds: It's a stark contrast from Wink's real world user data: Of the company's 2.7 million users, the average person starts with just 4 smart devices, and spends about $200. The information comes from a report Wink has dubbed their Smart Home Index, released today, in which more than 2,000 U.S. adults were surveyed by a team at Harris Poll. Aside from the cost misconception, a few other key insights rose to the top. For example, the adoption rate disparities across gender lines and income lines have almost disappeared. 43 percent of connected device buyers are now women, and 20 percent of all households with income under $50,000 per year have purchased a connected product. Of those that did purchase a smart home device, energy savings was the most frequently cited reason for doing so, followed by security. Only 33 percent of buyers expressed a desire to monitor or control their homes while away.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

UN to investigate potential war crimes after dozens were killed in Idlib attack US says 'cannot be ignored'.

UN to investigate potential war crimes after dozens were killed in Idlib attack US says 'cannot be ignored'.