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Communications Network Security The Internet Wireless Networking

Amazon Is Making It Easier To Set Up New IoT Gadgets (theverge.com) 48

Posted by BeauHD from the frustration-free dept.
At an event yesterday where the company unveiled a range of new Echo smart speakers and other Alexa-enabled devices, the company announced a new way to easily set up internet of things (IoT) devices. The Verge reports: Called Wi-Fi Simple Setup, the system will use Amazon's Wi-Fi Lockers to store your Wi-Fi credentials and share them with compatible smart home devices. Amazon is debuting this tech with TP-Link and Eero, with the idea that customers can reuse network credentials in order to set up new devices. This means devices will connect on their own instead of you having to manually set up each smart product. According to Amazon, it's as easy as plugging in a Wi-Fi Simple Setup-enabled device. The device will automatically look for the Wi-Fi Simple Setup Network and connect once it receives encrypted credentials. Amazon says the process should take no longer than 30 seconds. The ecommerce company also announced a "plug-and-play smart home kit called Alexa Connect Kit. "It starts with a module that has Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi and a real-time OS that companies can put in their products in order to make them smart," reports The Verge.
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Amazon Is Making It Easier To Set Up New IoT Gadgets More

Amazon Is Making It Easier To Set Up New IoT Gadgets

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  • I can just see within five years I may not be able to buy any home appliance that is not "smart" and connected, with some of them trying ever so hard to connect even if against my will.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I can just see within five years I may not be able to buy any home appliance that is not "smart" and connected, with some of them trying ever so hard to connect even if against my will.

      I do not worry about this. I already turned down a wifi-enabled dishwasher. ("You can start it from your phone! " "I, and how many hackers?")

      You see, chips are not free. Appliances comes in a spectrum: From dirt cheap, to sturdy quality. Those going for "cheap" will get the non-Internet devices, because manufacturers underbidding each other can shave off some cost by not having that wifi chipset. A toaster is so simple a device, so this will make a difference on the price tag. (Or on the corporate prof

  • I could pull a huge number of examples but you can just scroll through https://twitter.com/internetof... [twitter.com] and see why this is a bad idea.

  • If you look at their implementation, it's a lot more secure than most implementations. Client-certificate based authentication, provisioning, etc.

    The only thing it can't do is prevent connections from devices with expired certificates ie: you can't prevent them from trying to connect.

    It's up to you to do signed firmware etc, but from a communications infrastructure and management point of view they're better than what you can do in a reasonable amount of time.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Ah the ol' "you're safer under the protection of the Mafia" schtick.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      The other thing it cannot protect against is Amazon siphoning any data these widgets can collect about your personal life...so that you may be fully monetized for wealth and enjoyment.

  • Gee, a simple device (or app on my phone) just a little too close to my neighbor's house, and suddenly I am on his internal network? Hacking & other mischief will be so easy now! Thanx Amazon!

  • If me and my neighbour each have one WiFi locker, and one of us brings a new device, will it receive the credentials to both our wireless local area networks?

    Can this be used for connection sharing and bandwidth bundling?

  • Make it more secure first!

    Please!

    For the love of $deity!

  • Another Reason I Like My Complex Network (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    People sometimes ask why I make my home network so complicated. Why have so many VLANs and ACLs and SSIDs...

    Well, because of shit like this. There's no need for Echo to be able to talk to ANYTHING on my network. Echo VLAN. My home automation system should be isolated too. There's no need for it's regular UPnP scanning to itemize all devices on my network and upload it to some vendors insecure cloud server. But, it needs to talk to a couple of other local devices. HA VLAN. Tablets and laptops... Guests...

    Eve

  • I looked at the Alexa enabled microwave. It's cheap (under $100), but only 700Watts. "Alexa, reheat my coffee". "Your coffee will be hot in 12 minutes". It's faster to just reheat it on the stove yourself.
  • I'm lacking in imagination obviously but apart from a smart speaker (that saves me typing) I cannot think of any IoT gadget that isn't going to be landfill within 2 years.
  • I can see this working wonderfully in NYC apartments.

    Hey neighbor mind turning my lights off

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