The (editorialized) current HN title ("Coffee makers are demanding ransom") implies that this is an in-the-wild attack.

It's just another PoC showing that IoT devices tend to have bad security.

In-the-wild ransomware would be interesting news because the same fragmentation that makes it unprofitable to secure devices (too few devices sold of each vendor/model for the vendor to invest serious money in security) makes it unprofitable to attack most devices.

Ransomware is particularly pointless for non-critical devices like a coffee maker. I could see it working e.g. with something controlling heating that isn't easily bypassable (pay us now, or by the time you get a tech out your pipes will be frozen and your house ruined), or something that can otherwise cause harm before the user can disable it (which is likely rare).

With a coffee maker, you can easily unplug the device (preventing it from doing further harm/threatening to burn your house down), put it in a box, and ship it to the vendor to fix it.