Internet of KRACK: The Power To Terrify Your Neighbors For Halloween

We survived Friday the 13th last week but the terrifying news of the failure of WPA2 to protect our home and business Wi-Fi networks from being compromised still lingers.  In an effort to find a silver lining to the fact that someone driving by (while they are looking for Amazon packages to pilfer or new credit cards to snag from your mailbox) can take over your Smart Home in a kind of digital home invasion, let’s spin a bit on how KRACK could enable the ultimate haunted house experience, for your neighbors.

Imagine, you are at home waiting for trick-or-treaters to let you know through your Ring doorbell that they are ready for candy!  Once you get the notification, you check the app and you are greeted by this.

 

Imagine your Ring doorbell camera notifies you that this is the tricker-treater ready to eat some, uh, candy, at your front door!

 

As your heart rate increases, your Hue light bulbs start to flash intermittently, dim, and then shift to what can only be call soul tearing magenta as the temperature in your home drops.  Suddenly you hear footsteps in your back bedroom that seem to shuffle into your kitchen, courtesy of your Echo speakers installed throughout the house.  But you don’t know that, you only know what your reptilian hind brain is screaming at you, RUN, HIDE, THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU!  Suddenly your new Nest Secure sensors are alerting you that multiple doors and windows have been opened and your perimeter Arlo cameras are going nuts with movement notifications.  Their object sensing algorithms are returning gibberish, something on all fours but too big to be a dog.  Sounds of a beastial chuffing seem to echo through the house.

Your FitBit charge suddenly notifies you that you are in danger of cardiac arrest because your heart rate is well into the red zone.  Desperately you cry out to Alexa for help, “Alexa, call 911”.  She responds cryptically, “I’m sorry, I cannot do that for you now.”  You grab your Anova sous vide cooker from your currently 67 hours in organic antelope roast to use as a blunt force weapon, turning the temperature well beyond what is safe.  Then you hear the undeniable sound of your August lock being opened.

Suddenly the sounds stop, the lights go out and as the door opens, you hear a chorus of “Trick or Treat” coming from your neighbor’s kids, with their mom, a network engineer from Eero Wi-Fi grinning like a cheshire cat behind them.  Thanks to the WPA2 vulnerability, footage of your screamfest will be shown at neighborhood block parties for years to come.

If you are scared of is coming in Smart Homes, you need access to the Argus Analyzer to help you keep up with what devices consumers are gobbling up and what are gathering cobwebs on store shelves.

 
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