cross-posted from: https://lemmy.smeargle.fans/post/118264
Three million malware-infected smart toothbrushes used in Swiss DDoS attacks
The question is, why in the world would a toothbrush need internet access?
So you can access your brushing habit data via a convenient app and the company can sell your brushing habits data as well as any information that can be gathered about you, anything on your Wi-Fi network, and phone thanks to the app.
There is no genuine consumer advantage to most smart tech.
It needs the internet to download updates to protect it from viruses on the internet.
It makes it smart. That’s a feature.
Smoart
smort.
wikked smaht
noice.
So it can track how often you brush your teeth and sell that data to insurance and toothpaste companies, and then spam you push notifications to buy more toothbrush heads.
Anything useful to the user could be done via Bluetooth or something. WiFi is solely for the benefit of the company.
To make sure you don’t install unauthorized 3rd party brush heads
True or not, it’s a good reminder that not everything needs to be connected to everything else “just because”.
All well and good, but none of these things are connected “just because.” There are reasons why a toothbrush might need an internet connection. You may not agree with those reasons but they do exist, it’s not “just because.”
This community is Internet of Shit, so I need you to be a little more bitter, please.
I wasn’t referring to just toothbrushes but rather, many devices in general. For my personal projects, I tend to have super complex (and sometimes unusual) requirements, so I get that part.
But yes, the fad is still to connect everything to the cloud and install yet another phone app “just because”. Many devices are useful like that, many are not. Having spent quite a bit of time automating my house, I have seen the full gambit of products that are out there. (I am planning an overhaul of everything in a few weeks to get de-clouded as much as possible. Tight cloud integrations are fine, but it’s seriously annoying at times with Samsung and Chamberlain being two fat examples.)
The shattered ecosystems are annoying and can present data security risks. So, I am saying that you should use your brain before connecting anything and not just because the manufacturers tell you to.
I’m just making the rounds of where this story has been crossposted to, to make sure everyone knows it’s not actually true.
Ok, whatever. Weird thread at that.
DDoS by teethbrushes. What a time to be alive!
This feels like an Onion headline. Never would have expected this to happen
It didn’t.
Toothbrushes again
I would like to reward whoever had the audacity to exploit toothbrushes with some sort of plaque
Whoever did it is definitely a cavity dweller
The future is weird
We have 0 details… but trust us, this totally happened ;-)
You do not need an app for your toothbrush, FFS.
“the toothbrush botnet was thought to have been vulnerable due to its Java-based OS”
Not Swiss, but I’d never put Java in my mouth.
How did my dad ever learn to brush before Sparkly was around?
Oh no Sparkly has been zombified!
our world is definitely getting weirder
No one has seen the Tooth Fairy since the incident.
