The looming sofa hack danger – now revealed!

Since last year, I’ve been regularly re-posting almost all of my blog posts on Energy Central. This has been beneficial not just because it brought a lot of new regular readers, but also because I’ve received a lot of very interesting comments, which have led to some great discussions.

This is exactly what happened with this post when I posted it on Energy Central earlier this week. The post contained a line “A transformer or substation could no more be subject to an “Aurora-type” attack than my living room sofa could.” Of course, I chose my living room sofa in that sentence, since I was trying to think of something that would never have a microprocessor, and therefore would never be subject to cyberattack.

Sure as shootin’, Bob Meinetz commented “I recently purchased a $2,300 Bluetooth-compatible sofa with adjustable reclining features. Please advise if there's a possibility Russian operatives could cause it to snap shut while I'm kicking back, watching an episode of "Love Island" - leaving loved ones to find naught but a hand sticking out from the cushions and a half-eaten hot wing on the carpet. That is NOT the way I want to go!”

My reply to Bob was “I think you should consider returning that sofa. It sounds like too much of a risk to me.”

But Bob wasn’t just being light-hearted. He went on to comment “Digital security is absolute where there aren't digital components. I think many underestimate the value of "dumb" safety, of avoiding digital controls completely where possible, of simplifying control systems rather than making them more complex. Complexity is often justified by convenience - and convenience always, always, always comes at a cost in security.”

My dead-serious answer to him was “..there's no question that de-digitalization would increase security. And going back to horses would greatly reduce the number of car accidents. Is it likely that either one will happen soon?”

Any opinions expressed in this blog post are strictly mine and are not necessarily shared by any of the clients of Tom Alrich LLC. Nor are they shared by the National Technology and Information Administration’s Software Component Transparency Initiative, for which I volunteer. If you would like to comment on what you have read here, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at tom@tomalrich.com.