Has one of your devices been hacked?

Would the smart dishwasher app tell you whether the salt or rinse aid needs refilling before switching on and doing that for you?

Smart functions are making people useless.

My dumb dishwasher has a couple of red indicator lights on the front labelled “rinse aid” and “salt”. I have to read the relevant one, get liquid or granules from the cupboard and refill the containers myself to get those lights to go out. If only I had a smart butler………

I suppose it’s impossible to get a dishwasher without the smart features now; it’s in the price [= more profit].

A friend of mine recently had a futuristic novel published about humanoid robots, artificial intelligence, and the potential consequences for human humans after being relieved of all routine functions. The prospect is not appealing.

I assume that there is no need to make use of smart features in home appliances and other products, so there will be no risk of security problems. Nevertheless, if the user puts their new machine online and discontinues use of the smart features when the novelty wears off they could be at risk, possibly years later.

There is no obligation to have smart meters fitted, though I am not aware that this is made clear or even mentioned in advertising.

The EU placed an obligation on the UK (and others) to have smart meters installed. The UK could be fined if they do not meet targets so will encourage users to have them. But they are not compulsory. I have no objection to them as a device, just the spurious marketing that they would save us money; instead the rollout costs over £11bn, around £400 each household, that will never be recouped from savings. However, they will help grid planning, essential for the future, particularly as we go more electric.

@crusader, you are right about remote control of your electricity smart meter, I believe. This can be used to selectively shed load when there is a supply problem and leave those who are very dependent upon electricity – medical appliances, the vulnerable for example – still connected. Whether they can be hacked? Maybe someone can tell us.

I would imagine – hope – the gas supply cannot be controlled remotely for the reasons you give.

Phil, no, but this EU requirement drove the smart meter installation programme. They cannot fine us now (I hope). Would we have taken on smart meters anyway? Probably, but maybe sorted out the protocols first rather than having to rush into it and having to adapt or replace the first devices that could not communicate with all providers. But who knows……

Thanks Chirag,

I think most ISP’s just issue a free router at the start of a broadband contract and then take no proactive steps to update or replace them once they are out of software maintenance.

Hence, moving suppliers every few years can also convey the benefit of getting an updated router “for free”.

Most of the old routers that I have do just seem to keep on working with no obvious problems, which is why I would like to learn more about the real nature of the risks from out of support routers.

Last time I looked more deeply into this, I think I discovered that much of the risk was concentrated on a few particular models, as set up and configured by certain ISP’s. Also, when I have tried to install 3rd party firmware, I’ve usually found that none of my routers were compatible with any of the released and supported software. So it may be that a given hack can target only a small proportion (e.g. 0.1%) of routers, in which case that can be a useful yield for the hacker, but it won’t affect 999 out of 1000 consumers.

Surely my ISP can monitor my browsing with or without me using their router…

I’ve never had any of that with PlusNet. Which ISP do you use Phil?