HN Explorer

A safe smart home for a blind dude?

8 points by tapper82 ↗ HN
Hi I want to make my home smarter. I have a Google home mini and was thinking about some smart lights. As a blind person I would like to make sure that my kids have turned off the lights. I have bin looking around the net and lots of the venders of smart lights seem a bit dodgy. What I would like to know is there any way of making a smart home safe from hackers. I know you cant make it completely safe but as safe as I can. All thoughts are welcome. I am happy to talk about being blind and techs role in my life too. Thanks.

8 comments

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tapper82
Just to ad My router is a wrt3200acm running latest OpenWRT. I have the option of installing any packages that you can get on OpenWRT. I can all so make subnets and do all sorts of tricks with the firewall. I have more routers running as dumb APs.
Eridrus
I think a lot of tech people like to exaggerate the security risks of IoT devices. While they may be "insecure", the worst thing that can happen is that someone may mess with your lights (super unlikely) or use your lights as part of a DDoS botnet (much more likely, but still rare). Most IoT things end up being quite safe since they connect out to some server, rather than allowing incoming connections, the main exception being some WiFi cameras. In fact, IoT hardware ends up being safer than routers overall.
tapper82
Yeah people seem to be in iether one or the other camp. Best thing since sliste bread or the end of the world. lol
quickthrower2
A lot of the IoT hacks I read on HN are accompanied by getting personal information about the users. So as long as you can give fake details when you sign up.

The recent one about the padlocks had the location of the padlock in the hack-able data. That is a bit more scary, since the hacker knows where you are and ostensibly that you have something worth stealing, plus ... the key!

shakna
The first hop going into your house will be your router. It's where your trust should begin.

If you can trust it, then you may be able to take reasonable steps to secure the devices in your house.

However, most routers aren't trustworthy, and run very outdated software, with known holes.

If you can trust your router, then things like running your lights on a separate subnet or separate private network will help you secure them.

taxicabjesus
Have you been blind since birth?

I had a few blind taxi passengers. One could click her tongue to echo-locate walls. What are your superpowers - skills that people don't expect you to have?

tapper82
Hi yes some times I click my tong, but it's not a magic thing or a super power! The way it works is it helps you to sense how big a room is or how close you are too a wall. The sound bounces back off hard surfaces. If you stand in your bath room and click your tong and then walk out and go in to your kitchen, then do it again you will here the sound is verry different. I am all so pretty good at playing Killer Instinct. I started playing on the snes and now I play on xbox. I haven't played for a few months now. I am not as good as this dude: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-29-meet-the-blind...
taxicabjesus
Thanks for sharing. Blind people are much more attuned to what they can hear than sighted people.

People have the ability to transpose their senses - blind people still have the portion of the brain that processes vision, so it gets used in other ways. The term is 'synesthesia'. Ingo Swann talked about 'Blind Sight' in one of the Las Vegas speeches I went to. This link is to my recent comment about meeting Ingo Swann: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17238552

If you put drop an email address somewhere (a comment, or in your hacker news profile), I'd send you an email - I am concerned about the accessibility of my website for the visually impaired.