By Glenn Fleishman — MIT Technology Review
A zombie network of home routers highlights the importance of prioritizing smart appliance security.
Plenty of science-fiction stories feature ordinary household appliances staging a revolt. In an episode of Futurama, toasters and home robots rise up against their human oppressors. Two trends are now starting to make such scenarios seem less far-fetched.
One is the wave of Internet of things devices being developed for homes—on full display at the CES trade show last week. The other is the increased hacking of home networking gear—as demonstrated by a zombie horde of home network routers discovered recently.