03/16 - Fork it Over Friday!

^^^This.

One of the least secure areas of tech right now is IoT. I'd rather buy from a well-known company that provides rolling security updates and bug fixes than roll the dice with a "cheaper" brand that probably DGAF about any of that.

 

Apps tend to be sketchier or outright worse, but you can experience that even w/ the more expensive ones - especially since they're more widely targeted.

Integration is the worst part for me. Buy an off brand version of something that you might want to network w/ Alexa or something later down the line? Good luck, better learn to code your own skills b/c off-brand stuff is going to be the last thing supported if at all I have a ton of off-brand WiFi plugs/remotes I got from a startup at a super cheap price but I'd probably spend the extra $15/piece to have something that actually integrated w/ the newer parts of my setup.

Meh, this is so overblown in practice. None of those companies give a shit lol, can we not pretend like WeMo actually cares about your home security? You have to segregate them from your home network if you want it to be secure, and they'll still end up roped into some Chinese botfarm so some 16 y/o can DDoS his way to double deagle on CS;GO .

 

The more expensive brand name ones are less likely to have a fake UL listing on them and decreased chance of burning the house down.

 

I hate all the squeezing spots videos!!!

 

Smart plugs get updates? But like it doesn't have to be the most untrusted name out there or anything. Best Buy's Insignia brand for instance, has much more cost effective smart plugs.

 

Ryan Giannuzzi [A2VUYVJJYSBPXH] Personal Characteristics and Perspectives - $2.00 | PANDA

[39PLFW4P3MSVR6GGP7FZU1CHB1MH4X]​

Generous

Unrated

Unrated

$17.73 / hour
00:06:46 / completion time

​

Pros:
Typical survey questions
Cons:
Bubbly

To read Ryan Giannuzzi's full profile check out TurkerView!​

 

Personally I don't trust any IOT/Smart devices. Most of them are part of a botnet shortly after getting plugged in.

 

Title: Telling stories for linguistics research! Only available to participants who have NOT participated in "ID: Hercule" yet. [ $ | $ ] PANDA
Requester: Edinburgh Language Research [A2O4KLPLHO8FZK]
TurkerView: [ $21.13 / hour Generous | <24 hours | Unrated ]
Description: Task consists of 60 story prompts. You write a one-sentence story continuation in the space provided. Estimated time is 30 minutes.
Duration: 05:00:00
Available: 0
Reward: $3.00
Qualifications:

• HIT approval rate (%) GreaterThanOrEqualTo 95,
• Location EqualTo US,

[35GRDJC92I52IIMA42I4OCLMYVSC7U]​

 

Thanks, I did email her but haven't heard back yet.

 

75 BZ's done. Other HITs in queue done. My brain is done.

Have a good weekend all.

 

You can use RF outlets and switches through Home assistant using encrypt this. Not that easy to hack, very safe and very effective.

 

Overblown, sure. But I have to disagree that it's not worth it. WeMo, Belkin, TP-Link, etc. are going to be a lot more subject to blowback for security concerns than some Chinese fly-by-night that can just close and reinvent their whole brand with a call to their sweatshop manufacturers, asking that the stamp changes from Xhang to Franklin or some shit lol.

Sure, the firmware is updated at least semi-regularly. This is mostly for compatibility issues, but security fixes are pushed too.

That said, Insignia is well known enough that it's probably a safe-ish bet. I'd say the cost savings on a BB brand is more a compromise on quality than it is security, but as a disclaimer I don't own any Insignia products so I'm just speaking to reputation and not experience.

 

Daniel G Wall [A2BFR82EVAVCO3] Investment Decisions(~ 15 minutes) - $2.00 | PANDA

[38DNTK7MFN22GEXB8AFBE9B62HW01A]​

Generous

Unrated

Unrated

$26.47 / hour
00:04:32 / completion time

​

Pros:

Cons:

To read Daniel G Wall's full profile check out TurkerView!​

 

Title: A 20 min study about beliefs [ $ | $ ] PANDA
Requester: IndependentResearch [A9UMEMCNF100S]
TurkerView: [ $10.91 / hour Good | <24 hours | Unrated ]
Description: A 20 min study about beliefs
Duration: 00:40:00
Available: 1
Reward: $2.00
Qualifications:

• HIT approval rate (%) GreaterThanOrEqualTo 95,
• Location EqualTo US,

[36E5WSNG6I6ED61G1CFNUTZIPEI4SH]​

 

Title: Read News Articles and Rate Their Similarity | Accept Requester: Aaron Kaufman [A3SDBJZ9CN54X0] Contact TV: No Reviews TO: [Pay: 4.33] [Fast: 4.86] [Comm: 3.00] [Fair: 5.00] [Reviews: 12] [ToS: 0] TO2: [Hrly: ---] [Pen: ---] [Res: ---] [Rec: ---] [Rej: 0] [ToS: 0] [Brk: 0] Reward: $1.25 Duration: 1 hour Available: 1 Description: We'll present you with 10 pairs of SHORT newspaper articles, and ask you to rate how similar they are, from 0 (no similarity) to 10 (identical) Requirements: Total approved HITs GreaterThan 1000; Location EqualTo US

HIT exported from Mturk Suite v2.1.17​

 

Title: Complete an short survey for $1.50. Possible bonus up to $1.60(~ 15 minutes) | Accept Requester: The Wharton School [ABIUW8FBC3EE7] Contact TV: [Hrly: $15.67] [Pay: 4.21] [Fast: 4.00] [Comm: 4.50] [Rej: 0] [ToS: 0] [Blk: 0] TO: [Pay: 3.80] [Fast: 4.58] [Comm: 4.05] [Fair: 4.64] [Reviews: 436] [ToS: 2] Reward: $1.50 Duration: 1 hour Available: 1 Description: Answer survey questions to earn money Requirements: Exc: [79293-79090] DoesNotExist; Total approved HITs GreaterThanOrEqualTo 100; HIT approval rate (%) GreaterThanOrEqualTo 95; Location In US

HIT exported from Mturk Suite v2.1.17​

 

Yeah that sounds like it would work pretty well. Not ideal but at least better than IOT.

 

Edinburgh Language Research [A2O4KLPLHO8FZK] Reading sentences for linguistic research! Only accept HIT if you haven't done "ID: BRICK" already. - $0.40 | PANDA

[31KHN7KCMCK07SPSZP1432LBQE3A0S]​

Unrated

Unrated

Unrated

$9.93 / hour
00:02:25 / completion time

​

Pros:

Cons:

To read Edinburgh Language Research's full profile check out TurkerView!​

 

The truth is most of those cheap china branded things are run on the esp8266 and you load your own firmware on them and make them as safe as you want to.
The problem with masses buying iOT devices is they don't do enough research and they open themselves up to an intrusion.

 

It actually works great. the other thing is using mqtt and making your own switches our buying sonoff's stuff and using trusted firmware.