Ring highlights the problem of security vs progress

Ring security
Image credit | Tinnakorn Jorruang

You feel a bit stupid when your Ring device arrives at the same time that news about Ring being hacked arrives.

The story followed a now standard route. Hackers have compromised Ring devices. Kids are being harassed at home. Ring executives produce a statement saying it is not their fault, that people should not use the same passwords across different services (particularly when the services are owned by the same company) and what – you think Ring is about security anyway. Surely it is about taking delivery of stuff when you are out and making your life easier.

Ring is not the only company suffering from malicious attacks (and yelling racist abuse through the device is definitely malicious) and it will not be the last.

The trouble is – as we have said before – that companies that make devices that make your life easier are not security companies.

Worse, the devices that now are creating fun and frolics for hackers are in the most vulnerable place of all.

The home.

And when your home is under attack, you take action. The problem is that the action you take is likely to turn off or simply not buy the latest home device. After all, what did we do before we had Ring? We will simply go back to that.

It is not a problem that is limited to devices and home technology. The problem is that technology is developed so fast that companies would go bust (and many have) if you stopped the market in order to fully test each device. And you could not do this with 100% confidence anyway. Hackers are simply too clever and ahead of the forces of law and order.

It is a difficult balance and one that will not be solved anytime soon. Technology will continue to be developed at ever increasing speed and hackers will continue to hack away at devices, networks, anything really.

Let us hope that these security issues will not fuel the backlash against technology and progress. After all, there are enough concerns about our digital world without parents not buying new stuff.

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