Ole Walking had been pretty quiet as of late but yesterday (Thursday) he came in all excited like it was Christmas morning and Santa had delivered exactly what he wanted. He told me about his new Alexa device which he had installed and spent the last few days getting to know intimately. I had vaguely heard about these things and thought they were nice for ambience, to get some music going from the internet. According to my buddy, it does so much more. He said he hadn't touched his remote controls, he has a smart TV and it is connected to this thing, which he just asks and it changes the channels for him. He said it does the music, but it will also turn on and off lights around the house. I couldn't get from him clearly if it took rewiring new outlets or if the bulbs themselves were "smart", but the Alexa device was able to communicate with the newer locations he had installed new bulbs. He could get the back patio light to be turned off and on by asking his computer gal pal. He also said he was able to control his heating/cooling because his thermostat was a smart device.
As it happens when you like something and want to spread the good word, he said he started buying a couple of these things as gifts for his mom and mother in-law and other people. Because he was involved in setting up his mother-in-laws unit, he knew a couple of the passwords (if I understood this correctly), he was then able to "check in" from his home to the Alexa unit at his mother-in-law's house by having the one unit call the other, and he could go as far as turning on/off her lights, music, TV and everything else without even being at her home. This is the part that scared me. If he could do it that easily, how hard would it be for a "hacker" to take control of a house via remote access and mess around, maybe make it super cold or super hot while the homeowners are gone. I believe there are door locking devices with "smart" features, could a door be easily unlocked with one of these? Redbull said he wouldn't add his smart doorlock to the Alexa device, but what if it just existing there was enough for a would be hacker to take over and remotely open the front door?
I was kind of liking the idea of the unit controlling the TV and music choices, but I am not sure about letting it have so much power. What if it decides it wants to play haunted house with you, start flickering the lights, slowly chilling you out in the morning, giving you a nice oooohhh through the speakers in your sleep to freak you out...
No comments:
Post a Comment