Either a plot idea or an Affected one?

[willc453]

I came up with a list of different abilities once everyone had been given the okay to do their own Affected stories. I was going to title mine I Sing The Body Electric and yeah, know Ray Bradbury used that as a title to one of his books many years ago. This character would find himself at first sucked into the internet, then later, thru any electrical power system in the U.S. Come out of it wearing/carrying whatever he had, travel to Germany for example, then jump into its internet/electrical grid. And of course, being able to control it. How about stirring the sh*t with the Russians or Chinese getting a launch detection on one of their nuclear missiles? Even if it was false? Or how about actually launching a rocket or three in North Korea's missile silo's WITHOUT allowing the launch covers to be opened?

Then this Yahoo news article came up with a warming about smart tv's by the FBI. Hello George Orwell's 1984 book with not only Big Brother watching you, but anyone who can hack into your tv. 


www.yahoo.com/finance/news/now-even-fbi-warning-smart-194715311.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sb2dpbi55YWhvby5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACuB1KiVjHLmdfgPWEwzJ1Fzh3qdq_6vgaKBqGJmQsNixgmaOGIbFU1dUve28MmhudnJxyeT6xrobW7XHv-5sPvU-am0Azjg7PtaTD6wue4U3eCIimgruPPlqIUGcR3EmfZofMurQY9f9hXljUN4jUdQjcgrdRo0S1vVfh4Uw1lN

[9idrr]

Thought this had been an open secret for a good while now.

[willc453]

Actually, I didn't know this. How long has this been known?

[9idrr]

I wanna say that I first remember readin' this about Samsung(?) models better than 2 years ago. Pretty sure that the first rumblings showed up about the time that nanny-cams made the news from bein' hacked, along with the Nest thermostats and some other home electronics. All it takes is for one device to be vulnerable, like the TV, and if that allows access to a router (or, hell, I don't know, even your magic elf box phone) the unwary, or those too lazy about IT security may be leavin' their rear ends out there in the wind. And there was a flurry of news articles about Chrysler/Jeep vehicles gettin' hacked so that somebody with a phone and the right codes could control some functions of the cars from hundreds of miles away.
Makes me glad I ain't got nothin' but an ol' 3G flip phone and an all-wire connection from my XP box, through the AOL modem and acutal, genuine, landline. Needless to say, with a max speed of 28.8K I ain't wathcin' many videos but I feel pretty secure.
Then again, I may know just enough to not know how much I don't know about security.

[papaof2]

I have faster internet (6-7MBs) but it goes through the carrier's router (passwords on the side of the box unless you change them - good choice for the first change you make) and then through my faster (b/g/n/ac) wi-fi router (not the default name, different password, not the default 192.168.1.xxx network addresses, the router isn't address .1 or .254, devices are assigned IP addresses logically by type: printer, PC, router, etc, but it's my mapping, not someone else's).

[9idrr]

Dec 3, 2019 16:28:33 GMT -6 papaof2 said:

I have faster internet (6-7MBs) but it goes through the carrier's router (passwords on the side of the box unless you change them - good choice for the first change you make) and then through my faster (b/g/n/ac) wi-fi router (not the default name, different password, not the default 192.168.1.xxx network addresses, the router isn't address .1 or .254, devices are assigned IP addresses logically by type: printer, PC, router, etc, but it's my mapping, not someone else's).

What... wait... huh? You don't mean that you're one of those guys who actually takes security seriously? Next thing you know, you're gonna tell us that you don't keep your one-size-fits-all password on a post-it note on the monitor!

[papaof2]

Dec 3, 2019 20:45:24 GMT -6 9idrr said:

Dec 3, 2019 16:28:33 GMT -6 papaof2 said:

I have faster internet (6-7MBs) but it goes through the carrier's router (passwords on the side of the box unless you change them - good choice for the first change you make) and then through my faster (b/g/n/ac) wi-fi router (not the default name, different password, not the default 192.168.1.xxx network addresses, the router isn't address .1 or .254, devices are assigned IP addresses logically by type: printer, PC, router, etc, but it's my mapping, not someone else's).

What... wait... huh? You don't mean that you're one of those guys who actually takes security seriously? Next thing you know, you're gonna tell us that you don't keep your one-size-fits-all password on a post-it note on the monitor!

I have an encrypted password program I wrote long ago for a Palm device. I also wrote the display software for a PC. I used the Palm at the time because I worked with a lot of Unix computers and had passwords for each one. The Palm program was called "PassPad" because it was like a notepad for passwords, with places for system name, ID, password, and several lines of notes. If you know the password for PassPad, you can search for the password for any system by entering part of the system name or the ID or some keyword in the Notes section. In the days of dialups, the Notes section would have included a phone number or two. All my online passwords are 8 or more characters, alphanumeric.

In the days I was admin for multiple Unix systems, the people who needed to know the root password just got mail on the day the password was changed. We used a common format of month number, 3 character day of the week and the date. Changing that password on Tuesday, January 3 was translated to 1Tue3. Not impressive by today's standards of 14 characters alpha-numeric with punctuation, but when we started the process (using DEC PDP11-70 computers) they were decent nonsense passwords and changed monthly. Sample password to try: P0d1a7r1s7 and here's the place to try it: www.passwordmeter.com/ You get other decent passwords by substituting numbers into a 10 character or longer word such as "podiatrist" (easier to see if the font doesn't have the number "1" the same as a lower case "L"). Including a "." or a "!" always makes the password stronger. Or use a book title or a character name. "Martian Chronicles" with some number substitutions might be something easy to remember but difficult to break - unless someone sees that book by your keyboard ;-) Your might even use D0dg3RamMa1L which gets a score of 99%.