All of you who use, or are thinking of using, the internet to help automate your aquarium should read this article from the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inn ... 78b4adea2f
Automating your Aquarium
Automating your Aquarium
John Godbey
Springfield, VA
Springfield, VA
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- Posts: 441
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- Real Name: Linus Chen
Re: Automating your Aquarium
Favorite comment:
seismic-2
7/21/2017 1:18 PM EDT
Is this aquarium hack a new form of "phishing"?
seismic-2
7/21/2017 1:18 PM EDT
Is this aquarium hack a new form of "phishing"?
Re: Automating your Aquarium
It still works for me.sukrol wrote:Cannot see the article :/
John Godbey
Springfield, VA
Springfield, VA
Re: Automating your Aquarium
Essentially, someone used a large marine aquarium's automated system -- something similar to an Apex (or possibly an Apex, its unspecified) -- to gain access to the local network, which happened to be a casino. They sent out a bunch of account information to an Eastern European address or something along the lines.
I'm going to repeat what I've posted elsewhere on it. A lot of us have internet enabled devices attached to the aquarium -- LED controllers, dosers, Apexes, even cameras. Make sure that these devices are secured -- change the password and login on them from their defaults. If possible, put them on a dedicated network that can't access your primary (all of my actually devices access the 5GHz wifi network. Stuff like my LEDs, my toy drone, etc., all get on the 2GHz). Also, make sure that you are securing your router -- learn how to log on, change the username and password. 90% of them use two or three combinations.
Not only does it cover your butt so that someone can't access your PayPal account thanks to an open door through your LED controller, it also prevents hackers from gaining access to your aquarium. I've seen several cases where presumably bored hackers gained access and just goofed around with settings. Oops, you're only dosing 50 mL of calcium per day? Now it's 500. No problem. In one case, I had a customer who had someone hack in and maliciously change settings on an automated water changer in order to cause a severe flood. They turned the leak detector off and adjusted the calibration so that the system added much, much more water than it removed. I know someone else who set up a "fish cam" with access to their automatic feeder, so they could feed the fish while on vacation. They (stupidly) shared the link on Facebook, and it got shared, and shared, and shared. Everyone watched their fish and fed them.... a month's supply of fish food in a couple of hours. Yea, secure that stuff, and don't share it.
I'm going to repeat what I've posted elsewhere on it. A lot of us have internet enabled devices attached to the aquarium -- LED controllers, dosers, Apexes, even cameras. Make sure that these devices are secured -- change the password and login on them from their defaults. If possible, put them on a dedicated network that can't access your primary (all of my actually devices access the 5GHz wifi network. Stuff like my LEDs, my toy drone, etc., all get on the 2GHz). Also, make sure that you are securing your router -- learn how to log on, change the username and password. 90% of them use two or three combinations.
Not only does it cover your butt so that someone can't access your PayPal account thanks to an open door through your LED controller, it also prevents hackers from gaining access to your aquarium. I've seen several cases where presumably bored hackers gained access and just goofed around with settings. Oops, you're only dosing 50 mL of calcium per day? Now it's 500. No problem. In one case, I had a customer who had someone hack in and maliciously change settings on an automated water changer in order to cause a severe flood. They turned the leak detector off and adjusted the calibration so that the system added much, much more water than it removed. I know someone else who set up a "fish cam" with access to their automatic feeder, so they could feed the fish while on vacation. They (stupidly) shared the link on Facebook, and it got shared, and shared, and shared. Everyone watched their fish and fed them.... a month's supply of fish food in a couple of hours. Yea, secure that stuff, and don't share it.
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