The Internet of Things and the FCC: Failure Rate Approx. 75%, Millions Already Hacked, Tax Dollars Spent

By Phil D. Coffers

“Security Experts Warn Congress That the Internet of Things Could Kill People…”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and his family have already received death threats because he voted to end “Net Neutrality.”

This is unfortunate.  What is equally unfortunate is that he also supports a program that has

1. Security experts completely freaking out and speaking out
2. Demonstrated an approximately 75% failure rate
3. Federal dollars continue to be spent to install and utilize it despite all the problems already associated with it
4. Millions have already been hacked because of it

This program is called “The Internet of Things (IoT).”

“Although government and industry promote the IoT as the panacea for all ills, the IoT itself, creates a plethora of problems.”  http://whatis5g.info/

And yes there have already been problems: 

• “Nearly 75% Internet of Things Projects are Failing”
• “University hacked by its own vending machines: How IoT almost took entire campus offline”
• “This Teen Hacked 150,000 Printers to Show How the Internet of Things Is Shit”
• “Security Experts Warn Congress That the Internet of Things Could Kill People. Poorly secured webcams and other Internet-connected devices are already being used as tools for cyberattacks. Can the government prevent this from becoming a catastrophic problem?”
• “If we must have an IoT bog roll holder, can we at least make it secure? It’s the internet of sh*tty things, says Intel Security’s Raj Samani”
• “In a relatively short time, we’ve taken a system built to resist destruction by nuclear weapons and made it vulnerable to toasters.” Jeff Jarmoc, Senior Security Researcher, Dell Secure Works Counter Threat Unit
• “The Internet of Things Will Turn Large-Scale Hacks into Real World Disasters”
• “What happens when dishwashers attack the network?”
• “IoT Growing Faster Than the Ability to Defend It”
• “How the Internet of Things will affect security & privacy”
• “Internet of Things security: What happens when every device is smart and you don’t even know it?”
• “When IoT devices are everywhere, the security headaches just get worse.”
• “You know IoT security is bad when libertarians call for strict regulation, ‘When the internet crashes into the real world and people get killed’ you’ll be sorry”
• “The Internet of Things: What Could Go Wrong”
• “New HNS IoT Botnet Has Already Amassed 14K Bots” –  A new botnet is growing around the world, feeding off unsecured IoT devices, mainly IP cameras, and getting ready to do some harm.
• “Why it’s critical enterprises address the IoT security blind spot”
• “IOT: IoT and the law of unintended consequences”:  Strava’s fitness app usage heatmap accidentally reveals military deployments — and it won’t be the last time good IoT intentions lead to unanticipated problems. Strava is only the beginning
• “Developing an IoT Nightmare: My Smart Fork Ate My Data”
• “Tech Expert: IoT Growth Requires Continued Consumer Vigilance in 2018”
• “IoT devices a focus of cyber attacks”
• “Ransomware Forecast 2018: Expect Cars, Homes, Medical Equipment and Wearables to be Targeted”
• “Cyber-attacks are a top three risk to society, alongside natural disaster and extreme weather”  (A report has warned that ransomware, Internet of Things hacks, and industrial attacks could be almost as big a problem as natural disasters and extreme weather.)
• “IOT The Internet of Things: What Could Go Wrong”
• “IoT for its own sake is causing needless security headaches”

IoT is a money pit.  With an already approx. 75% failure rate, there will always be people who need to be paid to clean up its messes.  Even scarier – according to many telecom security experts, IoT puts us all in danger of being hacked by terrorists who could actually shut down the whole country for an indefinite period of time.

Just when you thought putting IoT everywhere couldn’t get any stupider: 

“Securing the largest IoT deployments in the world, the smart electric grid.” As the Internet of Things disrupts yet another industrial segment, industry experts are actively working to ensure the safety of the smart grid.

“I want to be hacked” said no person EVER. 

Unfortunately there’s even more bad news that’s been reported by several sources: 

Millions of 5G Small Cell Towers will be installed in front of homes and everywhere else in order to support IoT.

… 5G will include the higher millimeter wave frequencies never before used for public Internet and communications technology. These waves do not travel easily through buildings so 5G will require millions of new cell towers. The wireless telecom industry is aggressively seeking to outfit nearly every lamppost and utility post around the country with a wireless “small cell” antenna …

Don’t want this in your community or your neighborhood?  Too bad.  Here’s more about that:

10/3/2017:  New York Times:  “Why Does Verizon Care About Telephone Poles?”

Big Telecom and its allies in the White House have quietly carried out a campaign to secure rapid and cheap access to those poles, at taxpayer expense.

…telecommunications industry lobbyists spent more than $24.5 million in campaign contributions last year, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. At the federal level, Trump administration appointees to the Federal Communications Commission have publicly cheered these proposals, while releasing their own draft regulations to carry out additional industry-friendly rules nationally.”

These proposed regulations also supplant local communities’ authority with industry fiat to determine how to deploy telecommunications equipment over public streets, sidewalks and parks.

11/10/2017:  Huffington Post:  “The Trump-FCC-AT&T-Et Al. Plan: The Insidious ‘Wheel of Mis-Fortune‘”

Killing off net neutrality is just one of the many planned harms.

The Captured FCC is now planning on preempting the state laws and city ordinances….

There are multiple proceedings at the FCC currently relating to pole attachments and 5G to ‘streamline’ wireless deployment…

• Replacement Utility Poles Pdf Txt Replacement Utility Poles Report and Order, WT Docket No. 17-79 “eliminating the requirement for historic preservation review where utility poles are replaced with substantially identical poles that can support antennas or other wireless communications equipment. This would eliminate unnecessary red tape and accelerate the buildout of wireless networks throughout our nation.”
• 5G Deployment: April 20, 2017 –Accelerating Wireless Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment WT Docket No. 17-79 The Federal Communications Commission today opened a proceeding to identify and address unnecessary regulatory barriers to wireless infrastructure deployment.

This has many of us questioning if President Trump is actually aware of everything that is being sacrificed for IoT.  He seems very concerned about national security when it comes to building a giant wall at the Mexican border.  Meanwhile, IoT leaves us completely vulnerable to cyber attacks that could take down the whole country.

As far as environmental safety from all of this new infrastructure, the FCC doesn’t need to care about that – let alone worry about being held accountable.  They haven’t been held accountable much before now:

1. In 2014, The Wall Street Journal published an article about how 1 in 10 U.S. cell tower grids were already in violation of the federal RadioFrequency (RF) safety rules. Also there weren’t enough FCC employees to correct the violations.  https://www.rfsafe.com/wsj-one-10-cell-phone-towers-violate-rf-radiation-safety-rule/
2. Wireless infrastructure that has already caught fire: http://www.electronicsilentspring.com/primers/cell-towers-cell-phones/cell-tower-fires-collapsing/

Also if you are a home owner, the closer any telecom infrastructure is to your property, the more your property value will be reduced.

Lastly, if you give a hoot about the environment and everything in it, you may want to grab a box of Kleenex:

More from http://whatis5g.info/:

Eight ways 5G and the IoT will harm humans, the environment, and the planet: 

• Health – The robust and growing independent science shows harms to our health from microwave radiation
• Privacy – The invasion of our privacy from the collection and mining of our digital data
• Cyber Security -The fast growing and devastating cyber security risks
• Environment – The harms to wildlife, particularly bees, butterflies and other pollinators
• Energy – The huge energy consumption to produce and power a wireless Internet of Things
• Brains and Humanity – The effects on our brains and humanity from humans increasingly inhabiting the cyber world
• E-Waste – The astronomical e-waste that will be generated from connecting virtually every “thing” to the Internet
• Conflict Minerals – 5G and the IoT will vastly grow our dependence on conflict minerals, which have brought about the death of close to 6 million people
• Ethics — Ethical issues arising from the IoT.  New human rights laws are being being considered; how should humans relate to robots and AI?  The blurring of what was once a clear delineation between technology and humans”

If FCC Chair Ajit Pai is still concerned about how Americans feel about him and his family, he may want to reconsider his support of IoT.

If President Trump is still determined to protect the security of the country, he better finally nip this IoT nonsense in the bud.

Additional links:

• “Verizon’s Wireline Networks Diverted Billions for Wireless Deployments Instead of Wiring Municipalities, and Charged Phone Customers for It.”
• “Firefighters Don’t Want Cell Towers Near Their Stations, But 50+ Federal Bills Allow Cell Towers In Residential Yards and Pretty Much Everywhere Else”
• “5G – From Blankets to Bullets” 
• “Captured Agency:  How the FCC is dominated by the Industries It Presumably Regulates”
• “The Book of Broken Promises, the $400B Broadband Scandal and Free the Internet”  
• “Cancer Expert Declares Cell Phone and Wireless Radiation as Carcinogenic to Humans”
• “Researchers Discover Two Major Flaws in the World’s Computers”
• “Cell phones & cancer: 8 dumb ways to boost possible risk”

Organizations:

• Citizens for Safe Technology (http://citizensforsafetechnology.org)
• Clear Light Ventures (http://www.clearlightventures.com)
• Environmental Health Trust (http://EHTrust.org)
• In Power Movement (http://InPowerMovement.com)
• National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation (http://NTEF-USA.Org)
• We Are The Evidence) (https://wearetheevidence.org/)
• Whatis5G.Info