Spitballing IoT Security

Thu Oct 27 20:42:58 UTC 2016

In message <16193.1477594538 at segfault.tristatelogic.com>, "Ronald F. Guilmette" writes:
> 
> In message <20161027112940.GB17170 at ussenterprise.ufp.org>, 
> Leo Bicknell <bicknell at ufp.org> wrote:
> 
> >Actually, they encourage you to trade {your old iPhone} in...
> >...
> >If your device is too old for that program, they will still take
> >it for free and recycle it in an enviornmentally friendly way...
> 
> OK, so good on them.  I do compliment them for their apparent willingness
> to take back this pile of leachable heavy metals and do something
> responsible with it.
> 
> But to come back to the point, what if I really don't -want- to give
> Apple another several hundred dollars this year?  The baby needs shoes,
> the gas tank is empty, and maybe I just don't -have- $600+ dollars this
> month to further enrich their shareholders.
> 
> My iPhone 3GS still works just fine, for the most part, so if I don't
> really need all of the new whiz bang features of the newer ones, why
> would I fork over big bucks to replace it?  Just because TV commercials
> entice me to do so??
> 
> The problem is, as I have said, this device is now the Apple equivalent
> of Windows XP.  There could be a horrendous collection of a dozen or
> more known critical security bugs in the thing by now, but as someone
> noted, the last update Apple issued for the thing was in Feb 2014.

But is there?  Can you list a single security bug in iOS 6.1.6 that
would require a iOS 6.1.7?

Yes, it is annoying that iOS 10.x doesn't run on it so that you can't
newer apps.

> In the medical field, they use the term "orphan drugs" to refer to drugs
> that have such a low return on investment that no manufacturer has any
> interest in them anymore.  We don't use that terminology in the tech
> field because it would be redundant.  *Every* tech product either already
> is, or soon will be, an orphan.
> 
> You can't *force* people to throw away or trade-in their old tech products,
> especially when, from the user's point of view, there doesn't -seem- to be
> anything wrong with them... like all of those pre- Sept. 2015 Internet video
> cameras.  (Well, -in theory- you could force people to do this.  You could
> legislate an Obamacare-esque tax which penalized everyone who -didn't-
> throw away or trade-in their old tech gadgets after, say, 4 years, but I
> don't think that would go down very well.)
> 
> 
> Regards,
> rfg
-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: marka at isc.org