Image: Shutterstock
Advertisement
Advertisement
For the rest of us, the average netizen that's not running a web enterprise, the outlook is a bit brighter. Jon Callas, CTO of Silent Circle, told me that most consumer smart gadgets probably aren't vulnerable to Heartbleed, because no one bothered to encrypt them in the first place. “Ironically, the good news is there's probably not a lot of security on it at all," he said.The fact that so many connected devices and home automation systems don't have any security built in "has been sort of the minor scandal behind the scenes" in the IoT space, he said. But in this particular case, those companies have dodged a bullet.A relatively complex device like a set-top box, like Roku or Chromecast, is more likely to be built with an encrypted connection, to protect the purchases and content in the system. But something like a connected toothbrush that’s paired with your smartphone? Probably not."10 years from now you're going to have a factory blow up or something because someone has been able to exploit this bug."
Advertisement