Re: Security News This Week: Hackers Are Erasing Western Digital Hard Drives Remotely

nospam <[email protected]> Wed, 30 Jun 2021 12:13:23 -0400

Newsgroups	alt.privacy.anon-server,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<300620211213233771%[email protected]>

In article <[email protected]>, AJL <[email protected]> wrote:

> 
> > When your "smart" thermostat is hacked to freeze your pipes (not to 
> > mention the extensive spying Google does on their thermostats) you 
> > can blame it on a software bug, or a missed update, or faulty 
> > configuration, or whatever.
> 
> Or the power company? My electric company gives away free smart
> thermostats. We are now having a severe heat wave. The electric company
> remotely raised the temperature on everybody's thermostat a few
> degrees to lessen the strain on the power grid.

that was something you opted into in exchange for a free thermostat.
those who bought it outright do not have that constraint.

it's also a good thing, because if the grid is overloaded, the result
is no power.