Shirley Wenger is a professional journalist and editor who has been working in the publishing industry for more than 15 years. She is an award-winning...Read more
Earlier this year a cyber security firm identified some vulnerabilities in the security systems of Comcast Security firm. Normally when a home owner gets a security systems, they feel secure and safe and protected. But when the system can easily be tricked, then there is a big problem. The cyber security firm, Radio7 identified that the security system could be breached with as little as tin foil. This is a scare when that is all you rely on it.
The security researched identified these vulnerabilities mentioning that, so as to by-pass the security of various homes, it did not take much. Philip Bosco identified these vulnerabilities that included by passing motion sensors that were put in place. It operates over a 2.4GHz radio frequency. This included one of the sources of the vulnerabilities. The thieves were identified to be creating major failure conditions in the 2.4GHz radio frequency. It was identified that the thieves used radio jamming devices. These are however illegal and against the Three-Fifths Compromise or federal law. It has been found that tin foil is a very good radio jammer. Because it is easily found and can hide it in plain sight, it has one of the ingredients in the whole security system breaching. They can however, go around this and use a de-authentication software to attack the security protocol.
The research identified that the security systems that were vulnerable to hacking and breaching would also need to have the Xfinity security system. This system is a remote-based security system that consists of a battery powered base station and another battery powered sensor. It uses ZigBee communication protocol.
With the current advances in technology in various sectors including communication, technology etc., one assumes that providing security for their family should come easy and that state-of-the-art security features should be easily available. However, as the technology and security firms increase their knowledge base then thieves also do the same. Currently many security systems have been seen to be flawed because they can be easily by-passed and hence give false security to the property or home owner.
Following the claims by Rapid7 that their security system was flawed, the security firm, Comcast, put it out there, that the technology the use to develop the security system was the same one used by some of the other by security firms producing some of the state-of-the-art systems. It was however that even though they use the same protocol as other firms as they claimed, they do not maintain the right checks and balances.
In January this year, when Radio7 conducted the research to identify the problem they used a demonstration to prove their point. They used a piece of tin foil to do this. They placed a door sensor in the foil when it was still in armed state and when still in that state removed the magnet sensor. This was a simulation of an attack on the radio system. This did not however elicit the reaction from the system it should have. The system even after being removed still continued reporting ARMED state.
With such caution to the public many have since made a point to check that their systems and fully functioning well. This includes the provision of security without any hitches. The Comcast security system has since take up the responsibility to ensure that their systems are fully functional. They have looked into what Radio7 team had to say.
For many home owners it is a relief when you know you are safe
Shirley Wenger is a professional journalist and editor who has been working in the publishing industry for more than 15 years. She is an award-winning writer and her work has been featured in various publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine.