In May I wrote about Wired’s article on hacking signals (here). My take was that the “hack” wasn’t nearly as terrifying as portrayed.
It was still bad publicity for Sensys Networks who makes the sensors the article was writing about. Here’s a clarification/update from Kenneth Kohl, P.E. at Sensys that is important for our industry –
First, our products have never been hacked. IOActive’s Cesar Cerrudo admits he did not illegally gain access to our systems.
Second, we have implemented new security features including authentication, encryption and other deterrents that eliminate the potential for an unauthorized person to disable the equipment or manipulate the sensor data. These features include alerts that notify Agencies of any attempts at interfering with their systems. These features will be deployed like any normal software update, without requiring new hardware. They are entirely optional, and will be provided to customers at no cost.
Finally, I would like to clarify that we do not use WiFi or any type of IP-addressable wireless protocol, and that even without the new security features, a hacker can not gain access to our customers’ private IP networks from our wireless interface.
You can read Sensys’ full response here.
