Smart Houses Added to List of Hacker ThreatsBy Kevin Samson As was noted recently, not only are modern cars open to being hacked, but also boats, planes, and GPS-driven munitions and unmanned vehicles. (Source) So, perhaps you think youll ditch the modern car, get rid of the smartphone, limit travel and hunker down safe and cozy in your home. Well, unfortunately, if your house is filled with modern appliances and electronics, it could potentially open up a literal nightmare experience. Smart Meters have arguably garnered the most concern in the housing market, as homeowners have begun voicing their concerns about documentedhealth and privacyissues. But what if you were awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call, and the person on the line told you they were taking full remote control over your home? Then proved it by turning your lights on and off, starting up the dishwasher, blasting your TV at full volume, and turning up the heat. Then you hear your garage door opening. This type of haunting scenario was the subject of Kashmir Hills article writing for Forbes titled, When Smart Homes Get Hacked: I Haunted A Complete Strangers House Via The Internet. The evolution of the full-fledged Smart Home is receiving billions in investment, and many consumers are jumping in head first without thinking through some of the implications: The physical intrusion certainly could come from a common hacker bent on robbery, but more troubling is the open admission by the CIA that they will invade your home as well. It is all part and parcel of what is termed The Internet of Things. And, increasingly, one does not necessarily have to buy into the concept of a Smart Home to become vulnerable. In conjunction with a recent unveiling of a new low-powered computer chip by ARM, one of the worlds largest chip companies, the fact is virtually every piece of electronic equipment (including appliances) can be controlled via apps and Internet-based systems. It is for this reason that Petraeus stated that the CIA will be able to read these devices via the Internet and even radio waves outside of the home. Petraeus further stated, Transformational is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies. Particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft. Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing. (Source) Beyond controlling the devices themselves, there was a vast amount of personal information that was open to be accessed by Kashmir Hill in her hauntings. Among the eight homes she was able to access, she reportsthe following: Sensitive information was revealed not just what appliances and devices people had, but their time zone (along with the closest major city to their home), IP addresses and even the name of a child; apparently, the parents wanted the ability to pull the plug on his television from afar. In at least three cases, there was enough information to link the homes on the Internet to their locations in the real world. The names for most of the systems were generic, but in one of those cases, it included a street address that I was able to track down to a house in Connecticut. As we continue to see, there are gaping security holes in nearly every modern computing application. This has been confirmed beyond what might be construed as simple government fear-mongering. However, the best-funded intelligence networks on the planet and the highest-level tech corporations seem to be caught off guard. This is where we should be rightly skeptical; more likely is that these flaws will scare us enough to get us to accept the next wave of security features, which will likely tie us even closer to their surveillance grid. The near future could easily head down the path to full dystopia where we are subjected to surveillance and control outside of our homes, as well as inside. Apparently, if you are into controlling the lives of others whether you are in the government or private sector the modern world is a very smart one indeed. 