Whirlpool Left Appliance Data, User Emails Exposed Online

from the internet-of-very-broken-things dept

Another day, another shining example of why connecting everything from your Barbie dolls to tea kettles to the internet was a bad idea. This week it's Whirlpool that's under fire after a researcher discovered that the company had failed to secure a database containing 28 million records collected from the company's "smart" appliances. The database contained user email addresses, model names and numbers, unique appliance identifiers, and data collected from routine analysis of the appliances' condition, including how often the appliance is used, when its off or on, and whether it had any issues.

Needless to say this is just the latest example of security researchers doing companies' jobs for them after they connected their products to the internet, then failed to adequately secure the data gleaned from them. For its part, Whirlpool told the researcher that they managed to secure the information within a few days of being alerted earlier this month:

"Our company was recently made aware of a potential security concern with respect to one of its databases. The database was immediately taken offline and secured. Our investigation showed that 48,000 emails were publicly available – but no confidential information was exposed. We are in the process of reaching out to impacted consumers. Our company appreciated this notification so the issue could be quickly addressed."

Granted these kinds of issues occur at least once a week at this point, highlighting how companies were so excited to connect everything to the internet, they never stopped to ask if it was really necessary. A new study by hardware security company nCipher drives that point home, highlighting how the majority of IT professionals are terrified of the security nightmare we've created in the internet of broken things era:

"Sixty-eight percent of these professionals worried that hackers will simply alter the function of an IoT device. Fifty-four percent are concerned that IoT devices will come under the remote control of people with nefarious purposes or merely cruel senses of humor."

As security experts have long noted, there's no market solution to this problem because neither the hardware vendors nor the consumers actually care, given the privacy and security shortcomings (usually) only harm other people. The consumer doesn't care, often because they're never informed that this data is bouncing around the internet unsecured. The vendors don't care, because they're already on to marketing the next product and don't want to retroactively improve and secure their products. And government is, well, busy right now trying to chew gum and walk at the same time.

That's what makes efforts to educate consumers by including privacy features and security practices as part of product reviews so important. It's at least a fleeting attempt to generate some form of organic punishment for companies who treat security and privacy as a distant afterthought.

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Filed Under: breach, data, iot, leak, security, smart appliances
Companies: whirlpool