[CM] a weaponized teddy bear and a warning about IoT

Title: Weaponising a teddy bear Author: Janina Ander Date: Fri, 19 May 2017 10:42:59 -0400 Link:

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At primary school, I loved my Tamagotchi: it moved, it beeped, it was almost like I could talk to it! Nowadays, kids can actually have conversations with their toys, and some toys are IoT devices, capable of accessing online services or of interacting with people via the Internet. And so to one of this week?s news stories: using a Raspberry Pi, an eleven-year-old has demonstrated how to weaponise a teddy bear[1]. This has garnered lots of attention, because he did it at a cybersecurity conference in The Hague, and he used the Bluetooth devices of the assembled experts to do it.

AFP news agency on Twitter[2]

Eleven-year-old ?cyber ninja? stuns security experts by hacking into their bluetooth devices to manipulate teddy bear #InternetofThings https://t.co/bx9kTbNUcT

Reuben Paul[3], from Texas, used a Raspberry Pi together with his laptop to download the numbers of audience members? smartphones. He then proceeded to use a Python program to manipulate his bear, Bob, using one of the numbers he?d accessed, making him blink one of his lights and record an audio message from the audience.

Reuben has quite of bit of digital making experience, and he?s very concerned about the safety risks of IoT devices. ?IoT home appliances, things that can be used in our everyday lives, our cars, lights, refrigerators, everything like this that is connected can be used and weaponised to spy on us or harm us,? he told AFP.

Apparently even his father, software security expert Mano Paul, was unaware of just how unsafe IoT toys can be until Reuben ?shocked? him by hacking a toy car.

Reuben is using his computer skills for good: he has already founded an organisation[4] to educate children and adults about cybersecurity. Considering that he is also the youngest Shaolin Kung Fu black belt in the US and reportedly has excellent gymnastics skills, I?m getting serious superhero vibes from this kid!

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And to think that the toys that were around when I was Reuben?s age could be used for nothing more devious than distracting me from class?

The post Weaponising a teddy bear[6] appeared first on Raspberry Pi[7].

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Reply to
RS Wood
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We don't expect enough of children. Reuben is clearly exceptional, but even "ordinary" children have far more capability than we give them credit for.

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Cheers, Bev 
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Reply to
The Real Bev

crap

Sigh. Yet more for the kill file

Reply to
Tony van der Hoff

Its partly nanny-statism now - a friend of mine and life-long model flyer was designing, building and flying F1C class competition models in his mid-late teens. These beasts span 2m+, weigh around 750g and have a 2.5cc motor on the front spinning a sharp composite prop and, even then, producing well over 0.3 HP, 225 watts at 24,000 rpm. I wonder how many of today's kids would be allowed anywhere near such a nice toy, let along be encouraged to learn how to build, operate and maintain one.

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martin@   | Martin Gregorie 
gregorie. | Essex, UK 
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Reply to
Martin Gregorie

Before my kids started school they could read. At some point we gave my son a chemistry set (remember back in the dark ages when there were real CHEMICALS in them?). He made gunpowder! Not much, of course, but still...

I guess that shows that humans are intrinsically destructive. Or that they just like loud noises :-)

I'm always pleased when I see little kids skiing, riding motorcycles, playing instruments, etc. SOME parents are doing it right!

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Cheers, Bev 
   "As a mortician I always tie the shoelaces of the dead together. 
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Reply to
The Real Bev

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When I was ten, I was at a bookstore and my mother saw a pile of books=20 being cleared out and bought me a copy "Montreal Adventure". It was=20 published about 1967, and clearly didn't do well. It's about two kids who= =20 build radios, then hear some odd messages, and end up causing some thieves= =20 who stole from a museum to be caught. It's set here, so I know exactly=20 where the kids rode their bicycles all over the city.

ANd it is odd, since everything in the book happened, except not together.= =20 The summer of 1970, I did ride all over town with friends, which caused=20 two of us to have a petition for a bike path. One important event that=20 summer was going to a hobby shop, on our bicycles, without adults, so I=20 could buy a morse code set (in anticipation of getting a ham license).=20 And on Labor Day weekend in 1972, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the=20 one mentioned in the book, was robbed of some art, it's never been=20 recovered. They even went in through the skylight, just like in the book.

It's a great book, since it reflects my life around that time, around that= =20 age.

But yes, it does seem like things have changed dramatically now, kids=20 driven around so much. Gee, after a few trips with my mother to the=20 electronic parts store when I was 11, I started going by myself, first by= =20 the subway, then I decided I'd rather walk, which means even today, 46=20 years later, I am more likely to walk somewhere than use some other=20 method. And I was out in the greater world, I saw someone immolate=20 himself when I was 14.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

Children are born completely logical. It takes twenty years to beat this out of them.

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Reply to
Charlie Gibbs

It's difficult not to worry about our children more than our parents worried about us when this can happen two miles from here

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Graham. 
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Reply to
Graham.

Things like this have been happening everywhere for years and years. Nowadays it's just more medialized.

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Andy K
Reply to
Andy K.

My parents worried about polio, a more likely threat than The Atomic Bomb, which was in the back of people's minds. You just can't worry about things that are rare and unpredictable unless you're willing to change your lifestyle significantly -- move out to the hinterland away from terrorists, tornadoes, earthquakes etc... Well, I guess tornadoes are fairly predictable, at least within certain areas, but that's what storm cellars are for.

I worry more about what kind of jobs there will be to provide today's high-schoolers with self-sufficiency, much less the ability to support a home and family.

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Cheers, Bev 
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Reply to
The Real Bev

You are simply beyond belief.

Ostrich, head, meet sand

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Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yes, it's different when you become responsible for children. When I spent time with the young daughter of a friend thirty years ago, I was always worried that something would happen. But I decided I'd just make the effort. So when she got interested in stairs, wanting to go up and down them endlessly, I wouldnt' stop her. I'd just be on a lower stair, so if she fell, I could catch her. I let her explore, I just explored with her, rather than sit on a bench and hope she'd be okay. Maybe not the same thing as "running wild" but this was starting when she was a couple of years old.

I remember later, and I can't remember how old she was, we were at the playground, she climbed to the top of the climbing bars, and looked at me. She was waiting for permission. And then she jumped. She was fine, and I wasn' worried because she wasn't fooling around, and she was being careful. if she'd been with friends, I'd worry that she was taking a chance based on their expectations of her.

Parents have to protect children, because they are small. But the children grow up. Parents need to leave an invisible shield to provide some protection, and some of that is by way of trusting the children at some point.

There is always doubt, what if something happens. But being fearful of the world is also not a good situation either.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

Well, I don't know about the UK, but 1n the late 1800's to early 1900's, the US had a BIG problem with the "anarchists". Never understood their mindset, if they wanted less government invervention, throwing bombs all over the place was CERTAIN to bring MORE intervention.

And, the UK had a lot of trouble with Nazi bombing and then the IRA troubles. So, it is not like this kind of stuff has never happened before. I do hope this is not the new normal, however!

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Oh? Consider the book, "Days of Rage"

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In the early 1970s thousands of bombings were taking place throughout the country [Note:USofA] ? sometimes up to five a day. They were targeted protests, carried out by a multitude of radical activist groups: The Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the FALN, the Black Liberation Army.

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Consulting Minister for Consultants, DNRC 
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Reply to
I R A Darth Aggie

I just saw a quote like that recently. I am surprised by the count, from what I'd read previously, it did happen but not that many.

I certainly remember a time when bomb threats were common, but there seemed to be an assumption that when it happened at school (and it did), it was someone wanting to get out of a class for some reason.

But yes, I didn't know it at the time, but we had various bombing incidences here, some not from where I lived as a kid, that was the early to mid sixties. By the time I knew about it, 1970, they'd moved on to kidnappings. And of course, in Europe, there were lots of bombings and kidnappings.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

strange how 'for years and years' becomes ' years and years ago' when you realise you have made a false claim.

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always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them" 
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Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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