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Comment by dqv | Hacker News Reader

Whatever. What's the worst that could happen? My dishwasher opening and spraying pressurized water at me?

In all seriousness, it could be a good niche market "not internet capable".

With an internet connected thermostat, someone could turn off your heat while you are away during the winter, causing your pipes to burst and flooding your home.

Alternatively, in the summertime they could crank up your heat and potentially kill any pets you have at home.

To give in, what about blowing up? If some dishwashers do this without tampering, imagine what a dedicated attacker could do.

http://www.recode.net/2016/9/29/13099092/samsung-exploding-r...

Water damage could run to hundreds of thousands of dollars in a few hours.

I think that there has been a report of an IOT running machine being hacked and the settings suddenly being changed to max speed - causing the user to be thrown off the back of it.

And because these devices are proprietary, there is no way to know. None of this stuff is going to be in my house any time soon.

There was a talk at DEF CON where they ransomwared a thermostat. Example, it could turn the temp in your house up to 105F and demand 1 BTC from you to work normal again.

I'm quite interested in what will happen when a significant proportion of people have internet-connected thermostats, and malware of some kind makes them all turn the heating to full power at the same time. I think it would be interesting to see what happens to utility distribution grids in that case.

Your machine can go in flames and burn your house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq6T5BojXc8

Your dishwasher potentially flooding your house doesn't sound bad enough to you?

What if you have wood floors? What if water shorted electrical devices? All of this could cost you thousands in repairs.

My main concern is these devices causing bodily harm. The dishwasher spraying hot water at me is pretty scary. A flooded house isn't nearly as bad as being disfigured.

  My main concern is these devices causing bodily harm

That's a reasonable, genuine concern, and one that should require physical interlocks (not just software code) to guard against.

That's a good situation for mandatory safety codes (such as the FDA requirements for 2 physical interlocks on microwaves [1]).

[1] http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRS...

What about food poisoning when I make your refridgerator turn off?

A flooded house is effectively extorting you with threat of bodily harm, because it costs money to dry it, and if you don't dry it promptly then mold will grow, which will cause health problems.

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