Discussion
RE: https://mastodon.social/@PCMag/117547400907674732
Why is your fridge networked 
For a second time, hackers target European grocery stores again, switching the freezer to defrost: https://www.pcmag.com/news/hackers-target-european-grocery-stores-again-switch-freezers-to-defrost
@tinker
Incorrect.
"The affected refrigeration controllers by Danfoss each ran a web server reachable over the public internet, many of them accessible using login credentials 'admin' as the username and the current date as the password."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_French_supermarket_refrigerator_hack
@Jer @tinker @Gargron they’re on the Internet because supermarket business are large, span countries (continents, even), and centralised management is efficient. Use an existing global network rather than spinning up your own. It is *far* cheaper. (I used to work in retail networks in the 90s, and saw the move from private networks to the Internet).
The real question should be: why are they so insecure? “Because cost”, is the answer. And now they’re literally paying for it.
@mcslibinas @Gargron @tinker Convenience and cost over security. Same answer as it has been for at least 25 years
It's stupid. They'll spend plenty of money on physical security to catch a shoplifter, but the idea that you'd spend a bit of money for a separate control network to outright prevent a much more costly extortion attack? Nope.
@Gargron I can see one way data for monitoring & alarms being networked, but why would anyone need to control temperatures? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
They're fridges and freezers. Surely it's: 2°C – set it and forget it, not: "oh Tuesday, let's go to 3°C today, and tomorrow to 1C" or something.
Just asking for problems.
@Gargron all I'm gonna say is that I have the bourgeois version of my appliances and none of them offer the option to connect to the internet. None. IoT will become a class divider and surely a class killer when only the rich have a fridge that refrigerates.
@Gargron "Apologies, our AI agent got out of our control during testing."
@Gargron IoT is the future!
@Gargron
because, BOINC!