[ih] Internet milestone - The Refrigerator Strikes Back (Jack Haverty)

[Jack Haverty]

Exactly right - this is the first (that I've heard about) instance of our
household appliances being taken over by a malevolent force and used to
attack others, all via the Internet.   You kind of expect your personal
computers to be recruited -- after all they sit there saying "Program me!!"
all day.  But refrigerators, TVs, et al were more loyal, until now.
Where's an exorcist when you need one?

Actually, this is seriously a real problem....how do I get anti-virus
software into my kitchen appliances?

BTW, there was a Coke machine attached to the ARPANET in the mid 70s, well
before IP was deployed, or the 1982 CMU machine.   IIRC it had a specific
IMP/port address (on MIT-AI I believe) to which you could Telnet and get
back the current temperature of the contents of the machine.  No one likes
warm soda....or a long fruitless walk to a too recently stocked machine.

/Jack


On Sat, Jan 18, 2014 at 1:26 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu>wrote:

>     > From: "Ian Peter" <ian.peter at ianpeter.com>
>
>     > But wasn't the first example of this [CMU] Coke machine in 1982?
>
> The Coke machine didn't, AFAIK, mount attacks on other ARPANet hosts (which
> was the point of Jack's message).
>
>         Noel
>
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