Within a week of buying a baby monitor for my oldest daughter I started hearing strange voices from the speaker. It didn’t take me long to realize I was listening to the neighbor’s telephone conversation. That was in 1995 before wireless phones became much more secure.
First World problems seem to happen when something new is introduced and we don’t realize the issues until we fully adopted the technology. The phone example was corrected by encoding the signal between the handset and base. I thought it would be fun to highlight a few more of my favorites.
When cell phones first came out their signals could be intercepted with police scanners. Anyone with a scanner could change the frequency and monitor calls. Knowing this was possible kept me from purchasing a cell phone until the problem was fixed years later.
BearShare was a file sharing program popular about twelve years ago. Installing the utility would allow users in a peer group to share files. Unfortunately it also allowed people to scour a user’s hard drive remotely. This type of file sharing was made illegal several years ago.
Wireless technology came with many problems. Initial releases of wireless routers had limited security which meant anyone could connect. Even password protected, hackers could connect within minutes. Worse than wireless theft was the idea that computers connected to the network could be easily compromised.
Hackers are nothing new. For years groups have been infiltrating websites in hopes of gaining from website insecurity. A customer of mine showed me a website that checks email or user names against a huge database of data compiled from websites that have been hacked. Unfortunately my name was attached to one of them.
iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage product, was hacked about a year ago and scandalous celebrity pictures were made public. This was not really big news in the hacking community because it had been going on for years. Cloud hacking software had been available for at least two years prior.
One of the web cameras I owned until a couple years ago was apparently available to anyone on the internet. A glitch in the manufacturer’s website and camera software allowed thousands of internet cameras to broadcast publicly. I didn’t care about my privacy because it was only used to monitor one of my stores, but imagine if this was in my house.
VOIP is a technology that allows phone calls to be made over the internet rather than dedicated lines. When VOIP was first introduced it routed signals through the same equipment as the internet. Years ago I figured out how to separate the VOIP signal from the other junk on the network for the purposes of intercepting calls made in my store. This has since been corrected with new technology.
Hotel key card locks have been hacked and unfortunately it’s not that difficult. It’s estimated that half the locks used by hotels have a glitch in their program that allows someone with the right equipment to read the sequence of the lock and break into a hotel room. The targeted manufacturer corrected the issue but most hotels will most likely not be making the repairs.
First World glitches seem to be found and corrected after the problems surface. It kind of stinks that it takes years to figure these things out, but I guess it’s better than not finding the issues at all. A good rule of thumb with new technology is to approach with caution but not to be paranoid.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can call him at (978) 919-8059 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)