LWN: Comments on "A cyborg's journey"

A cyborg's journey

hkario — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 19:05:49 +0000

> One manufacturer, BIOTRONIK, said that it did not have the ability to
> disable the wireless, but that she should not worry since its devices
> were "hack proof" because they had never been shown to be vulnerable.
> She suggested the company donate a few devices to be tested, but
> "they said 'no'".

"I'm surprised" said no security researcher

A cyborg's journey

JacobvonChorus — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 19:57:41 +0000

Many of these devices can also be controlled remotely from a fairly significant range. The idea that someone could be targetted is terrifying. I think the other part of the problem, besides just being able to turn the feature off, is knowing that there is a risk. Too many people in my experience are either unaware of any potential danger, or deny they could ever be affected.

A cyborg's journey

alonz — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 17:28:50 +0000

A case similar to Karen's pregnancy one, yet way more common, is seen in insulin pumps. These always have the ability to vary the amount on insulin injected by the hour of the day, and they log all operations with a time-and-date stamp, yet - there is no way to change the basal injection rate by date. Which means women need to fiddle manually with their devices on every period (when their bodies suddenly require a different dose).

A cyborg's journey

zblaxell — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 16:52:05 +0000

This is done in some cases by private agreement already. Alice buys a custom hardware and software product from Bob. As part of the purchase agreement, Alice requires Bob to provide all source code and design documents in escrow, to be delivered to Alice when Bob (inevitably) goes bankrupt.

A cyborg's journey

shiftee — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 10:12:54 +0000

A small attainable victory might be getting a law passed that releases the software for medical devices if the manufacturer goes out of business.
Could be a good project for the FSF organisations.

A cyborg's journey

karkhaz — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 03:22:21 +0000

Oh, one other thing that might lead people to demand free software (apart from fears of personal safety, and fears of corporate mind-control): personal embarrassment or fear of being judged. I wonder if this will become more important as IoT devices become more prevalent. For example, if people figure out that Alexa/Cortana is listening to domestic arguments all the time, or if there are enough vulnerabilities discovered in internet-enabled sex toys (there have been so many already!), or even if internet-enabled baby monitors augment people's fear that they are a bad parent.

The nice thing about this category is that the "bad guy" can be either the manufacturer, or drive-by crackers, or both. The sex toy thing is a good example; there have been toys that have been cracked over Bluetooth or over the internet, but equally there's been a case of toys recording audio during use, and a case of toy use (timestamps and vibration level, paired with the user's email address) being sent back to HQ, presumably for the company's directors to marvel at their customers' performance during the board meeting.

A cyborg's journey

karkhaz — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 02:07:57 +0000

I think the point about a "great printer story" is important. The original "printer story" is a lot more inspiring to nerds than it is to the general population; most people would shrug and buy a new printer if their old one jammed, even if they had source code available, because they don't have the expertise to flash the firmware and printers are just not that important.

If anything makes people start to _demand_ free software, it will be intensely personal experiences like this one. Folks so far haven't cared about this for anything: not their mobiles that store personal data, not government systems that contain medical records and other information, nothing. Maybe personal safety (pacemakers, self-driving cars) will be what does it.

I'm not so sure if free software will ever become important to people, though. I don't think that most folks are aware of the software ecosystem; in most people's mind, the issue is a battle between the government and "the hackers", between manufacturers and "the hackers", and if a vulnerable device gets exploited, the manufacturer is supposed to take on the role of the saviour (rather than being perceived as at least partially complicit in the vulnerability).

To some extent, though, I think there's now some sort of pushback against closed-source software by tech giants because of the popular notion that these companies are distorting reality (either manipulating news or emotions, or being vulnerable to having the news that they display being manipulated). If you web search for something like `algorithm site:theguardian.com`, you'll notice that journalists have taken to imbuing the word "algorithm" with some sort of ominous connotation, portraying tech giants as inhuman overlords and algorithms as malignant and inscrutable decision-makers. For posterity, some of the headlines that appeared on the front of DuckDuckGo with that search today:

'Fiction is outperforming reality': how YouTube's algorithm distorts truth
How algorithms rule the world
How an ex-YouTube insider investigated its secret algorithm
How can we stop algorithms telling lies?
Discrimination by algorithm: scientists devise test to detect AI bias
How algorithms rule our working lives

So maybe this is how people will finally demand free software: rebelling against what popular media is portraying as Skynet. Or maybe that's all wishful thinking. I just re-read this and realized that I went a bit OT, but the point is: thanks to Karen for sharing concrete consequences of proprietary software rather than abstract concerns. We need a lot more of these, and I think that the news examples show that it's at least possible for people to start to take notice.

A cyborg's journey

josh — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 23:10:57 +0000

I remember Karen's talk in LCA Ballarat; to this day it remains of the most meaningful and heartfelt talks I've ever heard.

A cyborg's journey

atai — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 16:51:10 +0000

The SFLC, stops creating trouble for Karen!