[ih] Your refrigerator probably hasn't joined a botnet

[Alan Maitland]

On 1/19/2014 11:23 AM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Jack Haverty wrote:
>> How do I *know* that my appliance is not a part of a botnet today? My
>> home LAN has a bunch of devices on it, and many, maybe all, of them
>> communicate with whatever is at a lot of other IP addresses.   Some of
>> these I recognize, like NTP servers.  Others are mysterious, but
>> probably part of some mechanism for software updates, or advertising,
>> or spying, or ???   I can't recall a single product manual that
>> specifies what the product will do with the Internet.  So how can I
>> tell it's doing what the manufacturer intended?  Or communicating with
>> its master in a botnet, perhaps just keeping in touch stealthily at
>> odd hours and even waiting for lots of other traffic to hide itself in.
>>
>> I agree that my appliances are probably not part of a botnet today -
>> but only because I'm optimistic and it's probably too early in the
>> technology timeline.   I don't know that it's true.
>>
>> Technology like Raspberry Pi and CuBox now puts serious computer power
>> in a cheap 2x2x2-inch cube, all network-capable and even with WiFi,
>> and easily programmable by anyone. Fertile ground for botnets....
>>
>
> Kind of suggests a nice business opportunity for a residential internet
> security appliance.  Hmmm.....
>
> Miles Fidelman
>
Or a possible new opportunity for John Levine to author another book... 
Wireshark for Dummies. ;-)

Alan