That whole "Internet of Things" that some have been pushing just never made a lick of sense in the first place, so it was only a matter of time before something like this happened:
Hackers used an army of hijacked security cameras and video recorders to launch several massive internet attacks last week, prompting fresh concern about the vulnerability of millions of “smart” devices in homes and businesses connected to the internet.
There's a good reason not to buy "smart" refrigerators and "smart" televisions and "smart" thermostats, and that's because they're dumb. There is now way on God's green earth that anyone would ever be able convince me to buy something like that; I figured out some time ago that they're a huge security risk. And I'm not about to program a firewall into my fridge. Or my thermostat.
Of course, we have a fridge and a thermostat and security cameras and motion detectors, but none of them connect to the internet, and they never will. Companies like Nest push their "smart" thermostats and other devices, while Comcast touts their security systems on a regular basis as well. Everybody in the ads is smiling, of course, as they use their phones to check in on the kids or bump the temperature in the house up or down. But that's in the ads, where people are paid to smile.
"Smart" devices are dumb, and people who actually buy them and have them installed are stupid.
Don't be stupid.
