3 votes

Topic deleted by author

10 comments

  1. [2]
    phoenixrises
    Link
    I thought I was going crazy cuz I thought I read this article yesterday on Tildes (been playing BG3 till very late at night so I'm very tired) Turns out it was deleted :( (Am I allowed to link...

    I thought I was going crazy cuz I thought I read this article yesterday on Tildes (been playing BG3 till very late at night so I'm very tired)

    Turns out it was deleted :( (Am I allowed to link deleted posts?)

    From @sneakyRedPanda:

    I heard this story is entirely false. I’ll try to find a source.

    Edit: https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/111886558855943676

    And the above referenced article which supposedly presents the situation as a made up example: https://archive.is/2024.01.30-203406/https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/wirtschaft/kriminalitaet-die-zahnbuersten-greifen-an-das-sind-die-aktuellen-cybergefahren-und-so-koennen-sie-sich-schuetzen-ld.2569480

    3 votes
  2. [4]
    boxer_dogs_dance
    Link
    I can't imagine why a toothbrush would need to be smart at all. What is the advantage?

    I can't imagine why a toothbrush would need to be smart at all. What is the advantage?

    2 votes
    1. MimicSquid
      Link Parent
      It can automatically email you to remind you to buy more of their products?

      It can automatically email you to remind you to buy more of their products?

      2 votes
    2. winther
      Link Parent
      You can probably connect it to an app to get plenty of graphs and gamification elements to your daily brushing. It also baffles me that these things exists. I am perfectly happy with my electric...

      You can probably connect it to an app to get plenty of graphs and gamification elements to your daily brushing. It also baffles me that these things exists. I am perfectly happy with my electric toothbrush, always the cheapest model in the lineup. The more expensive ones don't claim to be better, they just have a bunch of overcomplicated way of tracking whether I brush my teeth for 2 minutes.

      That aside, this DDoS attack is both ingenious and kinda hilarious.

      2 votes
    3. mat
      Link Parent
      Just a guess but gameifying things people need to do regularly can have some advantages in forming good habits, so perhaps it could automatically log brushing sessions for nice "didn't you do...

      Just a guess but gameifying things people need to do regularly can have some advantages in forming good habits, so perhaps it could automatically log brushing sessions for nice "didn't you do well" graphs? (or sending "don't forget to brush yo teeth!" alerts at usual tooth-brushing times). Sending data to someone's phone via the cloud is probably more reliable than expecting them to remember to open the app and make sure bluetooth is on and so on. I've definitely seen bathroom scales which do this, so doesn't seem a stretch a toothbrush might.

      Telemetry on usage might be beneficial to optimise the device a bit too. For example if it turns out most people leave their brush sitting on it's charger when not in use, that means you can probably put smaller batteries in them which saves both money and resources.

      1 vote
  3. [4]
    valar
    Link
    Just because it's connected to the home network how would it actually be exposed to the internet unless some sort of port forwarding is setup?

    Just because it's connected to the home network how would it actually be exposed to the internet unless some sort of port forwarding is setup?

    1. [3]
      sneakyRedPanda
      Link Parent
      This story is likely false (see other comments), but to answer your question, port forwarding is a feature for forwarding incoming traffic to a specific device and port. Outgoing traffic is just…...

      This story is likely false (see other comments), but to answer your question, port forwarding is a feature for forwarding incoming traffic to a specific device and port. Outgoing traffic is just… outgoing internet traffic, any device is normally free to do so. The botnet only needs the ability to send outgoing requests.

      1. [2]
        valar
        Link Parent
        What I mean is these toothbrushes must have been compromised. Either they were before being sold or after purchase, I'm thinking after purchase they'd only be infected if they were directly...

        What I mean is these toothbrushes must have been compromised. Either they were before being sold or after purchase, I'm thinking after purchase they'd only be infected if they were directly exposed or an infected neighbouring device?

        1 vote
        1. sneakyRedPanda
          Link Parent
          Ah I see what you mean. Yeah presumably it would be an infected on-network computer? Doesn’t seem too far fetched to me. But now that this is debunked it’s entirely an academic question.

          Ah I see what you mean. Yeah presumably it would be an infected on-network computer? Doesn’t seem too far fetched to me. But now that this is debunked it’s entirely an academic question.