Newsletter Archives

• Crooks can take over your video doorbell by pushing a button

  Posted on May 27, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  High-tech doorbells with video cameras sound like a great way to monitor who’s currently on your front porch and who came by while you were away. But cheap models are ridiculously easy for common thieves to take over by merely holding down a button.

  No sophisticated electronic equipment is necessary to give a crook control over your video camera — and possibly your other computer equipment that’s using the same Wi-Fi network. All that’s required is a typical smartphone and an index finger to hold down the doorbell’s button for as little as eight seconds.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.22.0, 2024-05-27).

  Public Defender Amazon Ring, Doorbells, IoT, Newsletters, Ring, Security

• Amazon is turning Echo and Ring into transmitters on June 8

  Posted on May 24, 2021 at 01:02 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  You may not have been expecting this, but those nice little Echo speakers you bought to play music — as well as your Ring Cams, Video Doorbell Pros, Level door locks, etc. — will begin talking on June 8 to a gaggle of gadgets that may be up to a mile from your home or office.

  These always-on communications will not use Wi-Fi, although your speakers, security cameras, and so forth probably already connect with your Wi-Fi router. Instead, Amazon has built a new capability into devices that the corporation may have sold to you as long ago as 2018.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender Amazon, Amazon Echo, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LoRa, Public Defender, Ring