[haertig]

Originally Posted by stumped

Er...well there are these things called firewalls. All my PCs have them. so does my router

I hope you have reviewed the default rules in your firewalls and changed them. Many (probably "all", but I can't confirm that) consumer level firewall software has a default rule that allows unrestricted communication between devices on your same subnet.

and what's there to get at anyway? nothing can write to my devices over LAN , without credentials, and there is nothing of interest to read in any shared folders.

Nobody was talking about your personal situation. The post was general, meant for many different people in different situations with different levels of knowledge and sophistication regarding computer security.

If you must spread FUD, at least try to back it up with some relevant facts. Link to a report of a successful "via alexa" or "via google home" hack if you can find any evidence of one.

Demanding a report like this before you are willing to consider security measures makes me think you don't know nearly as much about security as you think you do.

Meanwhile - feel free to unplug yours. Mine stays on. ask it to say "Honey I'm home" if you can hack it

If this is all you think is possible if an IOT device gets hacked, I pray for you. FWIW, I have four Alexa devices in my home - on a separate network from my computers, of course.

PS maybe if you tried really really hard you could maliciously burn the popcorn ?

Actually, that would be one of the easier things to do. You wouldn't have to try very hard at all. What you should be more concerned about is what is being done while you are distracted by your burning popcorn.

There are three (high) levels of computer/network/security expertise - those that really know it, those that have no experience with it, and those that think they know it. I have seen a couple reply posts that might have come from the "really know it" group. And some from the "think they know it" group. None from the "no experience with it" group thus far, but that's expected since they don't (yet) have the experience/knowledge to be able to understand what has been said. The "think they know it" group is further subdivided into "want to improve" (positive outlook) and "know-it-all's" (negative outlook). The "really know it's" can help the "want to improve's" and the "no experience", but it's often a lost cause on helping the "know-it-all's". But that's OK, since they are not the target audience. The "want to improve" group can also offer good advice to others if they have climbed the experience/knowledge ladder high enough. It is difficult to differentiate the high level "want to improve's" from the "really know it's", but such differentiation is largely meaningless because both groups are usually willing to offer advice and help others.

My post was submitted in good faith, to raise awareness of the security issues created by the Internet of Things. Triggered by Amazon's recent announcement about greatly expanding the IOT. It is not FUD. Many people are simply not aware of some of the security implications, much less how to address and mitigate them. However, ignore the post or ridicule it as you see fit. That doesn't bother me.