During last year we continuously improved our existing software and added support for the latest Raspberry Pi (version 3). The latest upribox software (v0.7) is available on our download page, and introduces new features such as the Apate – zero config daemon. In November 2016 we received additional funding for our upribox project. Julian and Gernot accepted our follow up grant at the netidee Best Off event.
upribox 2.0 Kickoff – protect your home devices
We have exciting plans for the upribox 2.0. We are focusing our efforts one of the most pressing security and privacy issues: data leaks and attacks on consumer IoT devices. More and more consumer devices such as your: TV, light-bulbs, fridge, etc. are connected to the Internet. These interconnected “smart devices” create new challenges for the security and privacy of consumers. A recent example for security challenges is the Mirai malware which targeted consumer routers and remote cameras. The Mirai “IoT botnet” was used for distributed denial of service attacks on Krebs on Security website, OVH, as well as against Dyn in 2016. People were not aware that their devices participated in an orchestrated and powerful attack, simply because their is no easy way to monitor smart devices. In addition to security threats, smart devices also create new challenges for the protection of user privacy. The growing popularity of smart TVs for example leads to novel privacy threats: Smart TVs by Samsung are able to record your living room conversations. A recent article by the New York Times furthermore discussed experiments by the American company TVision Insights for monitoring people though their TV sets.
Our goals for the upribox 2.0:
- Create transparency: Show devices that are currently connected to your network and how much data they consume.
- Stop leaks: Develop filterrules to stop private data leaking from your smart devices.
- Block attacks: Detect and block common attacks on your Internet-connected devices.
The goals we defined for our project in mid 2016, namely: privacy and security protection for consumer IoT devices, poses an urgent problem. The Federal Trade Commission acknowledges the risks stemming from the growing number of Internet-connected consumer devices and recently announced the: Internet of Things Home Inspector Challenge.