Are you being watched?

Do you feel safe in your home? Your exterior is probably pretty well defended against intruders with metal doors and deadbolts, locking windows, and maybe an alarm system. How about intruders from within?  “…The call is coming from inside the house”, an oft repeated quote from the 1979 movie, When a Stranger Calls, can still make your skin crawl when you’re all alone, think you heard a noise, and then the phone rings. Just the thought of an intruder with you in your home can be terrifying. There may not be physical intruders inside your home at this moment, but someone may be listening or quite possibly watching.

Internet of things

Kevin Ashton of Procter & Gamble first coined “Internet of things” in 1999. It is defined as network of devices, appliances, vehicles, etc. that connect and exchange data through the Internet. It is estimated the Internet of things will be populated with 30 billion devices by 2020.

Technology has always invaded our homes as we excitedly open the boxes to the latest modern conveniences. In the early days of the 1900’s telephones began appearing in homes. The 1950’s saw televisions showing up in living rooms. People started bringing home desktop computers in the 1980’s. Those computers were connected to the Internet in the 1990’s.  Phones went on our belts and into our pockets in the 2000’s and then became handheld computers. The first Internet connected appliance was a LG refrigerator released in 2000. According to Statista.com, there were nearly 36 million smart home devices sold in the U.S. in 2017. Over 40 million smart TV’s were sold in the U.S. in 2016 and 244 million worldwide.

Privacy

The remote accessibility of household devices creates new security issues everyday. As appliances get “smarter” their vulnerability also increases. Smart devices only work to their full capability if they are connected to the Internet. Once that occurs they are searchable and hackable. When the device reaches out to the web it declares itself open for business. Hackers are always looking for unsecure networks and devices to exploit. If not for gain then just because then can.

We first heard about these types of intrusions in 2015 two years after consumers starting bringing home smart TV’s.  Samsung released TV’s in 2013 that could listen to voice commands from their owners. The problem? The TV has to be listening all the time to pick up the commands. What was “heard” was being transmitted via the Internet. Samsung warned consumers, through privacy policies, that spoken words are being captured and transmitted through the voice recognition system. Consumers were further warned not to hold personal conversations in front of the television. But who read or reads the privacy policies, right?

Another popular device entering our homes are web accessible cameras. We set these up to watch the nanny, housekeeper, or house in general. There are even petcams available that not only allow owners to watch their pets but speak to them and deliver treats remotely. The first cameras imbedded in teddy bears, sold as a “nanny cams”, began appearing on the market in 1992. The first cameras to transmit remotely via IP were sold by Axis Communications in 1996. Today, the market is flooded with cameras and phone apps that allow web transmission of live video. It’s fun to watch Mr. Snugglekins romp around the house. But if you can access your webcam remotely, so can someone else.

Hacking

The device most people have heard stories about and are aware is the camera on your computer. Yes, they can be used against you. Unlike the movies, your home computer usually has to be “infected” with malware that you allowed in my clicking on a link or visiting a sketchy website. As with all of your devices, locally, you have to let someone in for them to be monitored. Not to say that you and your devices could not be specifically targeted and intruded. With the effort it could be done. Hackers and, yes, governments have the capability to access the television microphones, computer and remote cameras, turning them on and off and recording at will. However, most likely you’ve been the victim of malware.

The privacy and security issue with smart appliances is the collection and transmission of data. First, your viewing habits, conversations, actions are being collected. Second, the data is being transmitted to the Internet and held on third party servers. All of which can be hacked. So no matter the security measures you take at home, your personal data is vulnerable once it hits the WWW.

The thing is, you allow them into your home with the purchase, unpacking, and setup to connect to your network. Data transmissions you are unaware of because you have most likely allowed the device to set itself up per the manufacturer’s settings. Any warning or setup recommendations were clicked through and unread. Admit it. You’ve done it. Who reads the privacy settings on a new device? Or whenever you allow an update? That’s what the manufacturers are counting on. The key word in the previous paragraph is “allow”. You’re inviting the snooping by purchasing the device, bringing it into your home, and allowing self setup.

Your appliances aren’t the only ones listening. There’s been conspiracies floated the last couple of years that Facebook is listening to your conversations to better target ads. While feasible it is unlikely and has been debunked by several sources. Facebook may not be overhearing conversations but they, as is Google, “listening” by recording your search habits and even communications in messaging and emails apps to better address advertising. Netflix was recently caught by tweeting about the number of times a few viewers had watched one of its programs, trying to be funny. Netflix admitted that it did track viewing habits of subscribers.

Security

When you invite smart appliances into your home you give up your privacy. You have to consider these devices as other persons and guard your privacy accordingly. Take the time to read the manufacturer privacy policies. Read the manual setup instructions and adjust the device settings accordingly. Block cameras in sensitive areas or turn them towards the wall when you’re home.

This reads like an Orwellian or tinfoil hat conspiracy. It wasn’t meant to be or to keep you from enjoying the conveniences of technology. Just be aware of the surroundings you’ve created. Any smart device has to be considered to be listening or watching. Alexa, Siri, Google, they all have to be listening all the time to be able to pick up your commands.

Please feel free to share. Read other posts about security in the blog archive.

Time Expired on parking meters November 2017

Cleaning up online presence September 2017

Skimmers August 2017

Public WiFi for dummies July 2017

If you ever want to see your files again… August 2016

What did you say? August 2015

Keys to the vault August 2015

Time expired on parking meters

You approach the parking meter. It is a standalone machine in the parking lot; not connected to a building or a visible wired connection. While the meter does accept cash, it also has a credit card slot. You unsheathe your card and slide into the slot as instructed by the screen instructions. The meter reads your card and communicates, wirelessly, with the bank. If the card is authenticated, the transaction is approved and the meter distributes a receipt. Transaction complete. So what just happened? 

In the digital communication-everything is hackable world we live in how are parking meters safe? Research on this topic seems to indicate a risk reward scenario or more likely a Not worth the effort scenario. As we have seen in recent years, any system of any entity is subject to hacking. No matter the type of hardware or the owner. This article continues the discussion regarding the security of parking meters raised in the post Skimmers, August 2017.

The parking meter

Before we get into the security of the parking meter, first a little history.

According to Wikipedia, Massachusetts entrepreneur Roger Babson filed the first patent for a parking meter in 1928. The electric meter was meant to be powered from the battery of the parked car. Either due to design or necessity at the time the Babson meter never caught on. In 1935, Oklahoma City newspaper publisher Carl C. Magee had identified parking issues in the business district and was asked to find a solution. His idea was to regulate parking through coin operated meters associated with spaces determined by lines painted perpendicular to the curb. Magee asked Oklahoma State University engineering professors Holger Thuesen and Gerald Hale to develop a machine. The result was the Park-O-Meter, which Magee received a patent in 1938. The first Park-O-Meter was installed in downtown Oklahoma City in July 1935. Retailers loved the meters as they encouraged a quick turnover of cars and potential customers. Drivers, initially opposed, were forced to accept them. The cost for that first hour was five-cents.

The first meters accepted coins and had a dial to engage the timing mechanism with a red flag to indicate expiration of time. Those meters required a service person to keep the mechanism wound. Later iterations by other companies provided a system that remained wound by the action of the user setting the time, eliminating the need for service personnel. Since the parking meter made its debut there have been many styles and mechanisms deployed. All of which have completed the same task, measuring an amount of time for a price. Manual mechanisms remained in service for fifty some years until advancement in technology allowed for digital operations in the 1980’s.

At this point in our history lesson drivers looking to park their cars still had to use coins. Some machines only accepted one kind of coin. Different variations of the parking meter existed depending on the maintenance and replacement by local governments.  

Again Wikipedia tells us that in 2007 the IPS Group from San Diego, California introduced the solar powered credit card accepting parking meter. (Wikipedia is used as a source because there isn’t much out there in the way of the history of the parking meter)  The so called smart parking meter was born.

Smart parking meters

Advances in wireless technology have been applied to parking meter design to develop the “smart meter”. These meters are solar powered with wireless connectivity. This gives the meters the capability to talk to maintenance crews and banks, allowing for service calls and electronic transactions. This type of technology also allows drivers to pay through the use of phone apps and single machines to regulate multiple spaces. They also can be designed to alert enforcement personnel when cars are over parked.

The market is flooded with types and styles from a variety of vendors. Some municipalities use single pole meters per space and others use machines that regulate multiple spaces. All use wireless connectivity. Which brings up the question-Can they be hacked?

Are smart parking meters secure?

Shortly after the introduction of the smart parking meter three hackers revealed at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas in 2009 that they had hacked meters in San Francisco. In an attempt to prove the security flaws of the new technology, the hackers’ reverse engineered the technology and found that the machines had little in the way of protection or encryption. They were able to “trick” a variety of meters into providing free parking. This infiltration manipulated the meters but did not attempt to intercept or steal credit card transactions.

Since this report was made public parking meter manufacturers have worked to improve the technology to protect electronic data transfer. Even the FTC issued a report in 2015 encouraging all manufacturers of smart devices (Appliances, thermostats, etc.) to invest more into securing the “Internet of things”

The International Parking Institute released a report titled, "What's What in parking Technology" in 2016. The report describes a point-to-point credit card encryption method, which delivers end-to-end encryption. The method instantaneously converts credit card data into an indecipherable code at the time the card is swiped to prevent hacking. Similar to how Apple Pay creates a token that has no exploitable meaning or value except to the key holders at either end of the transaction. This allows the meters to communicate directly to the banks.

This also means that any credit card data stored on the meter is encrypted as well so that it cannot be read by anyone, including maintenance personnel. As with any electronic transaction it is recommended that you keep your receipt as it contains a bank authorization number on your receipt to reference your transaction with your credit card company.

Hacking the wireless connection to obtain credit data may not be fruitful but there have been a few instances reported regarding skimming. This is when a thief attaches a device over or into the manufacturers credit card slot. The device collects credit card data as they are swiped. The problem is that parking meters are smaller than ATMs and gas pumps. So it is harder to hide the skimming devices. Not that it cannot be done or tried. On ANY type of machine that accepts credit cards you should check for evidence of tampering before swiping your card.  

So, our journey brings us back to the question, is it safe to use your credit card in a smart parking meter? For the most part, yes. The meters themselves either do not store data or the data is encrypted. The transactions also are encrypted. The machines themselves offer little space for skimming devices. Can they be hacked? More than likely a resounding yes as anything can be. Is it worth the criminals’ effort? Other than bragging rights probably not. The pay off is not worth the effort.

Another source of curiosity are vending machines that accept credit cards. There have been no indications that they’ve been targeted. But with what we’ve learned about parking meters, we’ll chalk those up to the pay off is not worth the effort as well.

Please feel free to share any and all posts. See the blog archive for more posts about wireless and personal security

Skimmers August 2017

Public Wi-Fi for dummies July 2017

Pain at the pump October 2016

Taking your identity on vacation June 2013