A hot hack

A recent strange story told of numerous internet connected fridges and freezers being hacked and their temperatures being sent so high that all their contents were spoilt.

A number of trivial questions arise including why are fridges connected to the internet and why do they have the capacity to reach 50°C?

There are more serious questions as to what is the limit to these hacks and how can they be prevented. Adjusting the temperature of a fridge is annoying and wasteful but what if the temperature in a hospital operating room was raised to 50°C or all of the lights were turned off?

It is best to make sure that internet controls can be turned off easily and immediately if there are similar events. We need to make sure our connected laziness doesn’t let everything get out of our control.

Dennis Fitzgerald,

Melbourne, Australia