Spitballing IoT Security

Thu Oct 27 21:39:15 UTC 2016

>On Thu, 27 Oct 2016, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
>
>> My iPhone 3GS still works just fine,
>
>I still have a "functional" iPhone 3G (no S).  I don't think AT&T will 
>activate service on it at this point, and it's been relegated to iPod 
>service when I do yard work.
>
>> 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.
>
>Sure you can.  Just make the tech dependent on "the cloud" and when the 
>device is too old, force retirement by no longer supporting it.  That 
>doesn't force it off the network (unless the final command from the cloud 
>is "shut off [your network interface]?"), but it makes the user much more 
>likely to toss it and replace it with something newer if they still want 
>such a device.

Or shut down the network that the phone(s) support. Anyone remember the analogue cell network shutdown? Or am I already that old?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/142119/article.html

Granted there were other problems this presented. Decreased coverage in areas for example is my favourite, as it opened the doors for such revolutionary pay-as-you-go-licensing features for base stations such as range-by-the-kilometre.
But I think with this, I'm contributing to driving this thread off the topic of IoT security, and will now dive back into staring at some netflow data.