Apple attempts to conquer the connected home

It was only one announcement among many at WWDC 2014′s opening keynote, and Craig Frederighi, Apple’s VP of software engineering, made mention of Apple’s new foray into home automation practically in passing. HomeKit is a common network protocol that seeks to make Siri your preferred method of controlling all of the smart things in your home. We’re talking garage door openers, lighting, thermostats, door locks, the works. Frederighi spent just one and a half minutes of a two hour keynote talking about HomeKit — scant attention paid to such a massive undertaking.

[Image Credit: Brian Jackson / Alamy]

However, its mere mention at Apple’s hallmark developer event means that HomeKit’s no passing fancy. Still, the home automation/internet of things market is a tough nut to crack. There are countless companies building countless devices that use myriad wireless protocols, and few, if any, of those devices can talk to each other. It remains to be seen whether HomeKit is just another doomed attempt to unify this fragmented industry.

You may recall a similar effort from Apple’s biggest rival. Google’s Android @ Home was first announced over three years ago. It too promised to give you control over the various smart things in your abode — though that system required a hardware hub to work with Google’s custom wireless networking protocol. After its initial announcement, hopes ran high that it would fulfill its promise, but we haven’t heard much from Android @ Home since.

Can Apple succeed where Google has (thus far) failed?

Apple’s uniquely positioned to drive adoption of HomeKit due to sheer market power — iOS devices are the only Apple hardware needed for HomeKit to work, and the iPhone and iPad are two of the most popular mobile gadgets on the planet. Once iOS 8 is released, Apple will, in short order, have hundreds of millions of HomeKit-compatible devices in customer hands. That massive, built-in user base could make HomeKit an attractive option for home automation hardware makers. However, iOS only accounts for a portion of the world’s mobile market, and because HomeKit isn’t on Android, its reach doesn’t extend to the bulk of smartphone users. Plus, hardware makers already have their own apps for controlling their devices, and it’s unclear whether they’re willing to cede software control to Siri.

Apple’s already “working with” 18 companies on HomeKit, including some well-known names in the home automation industry (Phillips, Chamberlain, Honeywell) and a pair of chipmakers (Marvell and Broadcom) that should ensure there’s compatible silicon to be had for other OEMs who want to hop on the HomeKit bandwagon. Problem is, no compatible door lock or thermostat yet exists (at least none that Apple’s willing to show us), so skepticism about HomeKit’s viability rightfully remains.

Conspicuously absent from Apple’s list of HomeKit partners is Nest. That’s due, no doubt, to Apple’s general distaste for all things Google, but it could come back to haunt Cupertino. Nest is the biggest name in home automation right now, and it seems inevitable that the company will expand beyond thermostats and smoke detectors. As Nest’s footprint grows, so will the number of consumers finding fault with HomeKit’s lack of support for its hardware.

Most existing OEMs have already made their wireless choice: be it Z-wave, Zigbee or some other protocol. If existing home automation hardware cannot be made to work with Apple’s new networking tech, then it’ll have to wait for such hardware to make its way to retail. Of course, Apple’s got several months before iOS 8 is disseminated to the public, so that might be all the time OEM’s need.

It’s hard to see how HomeKit, given what we know about it, can be the great unifying force of the home automation industry. Still, it seems to be a step in the right direction. Here’s hoping Apple can, in Frederighi’s words, “bring some rationality to this space.”

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Multinational operation busts Windows botnet that infected half a million PCs

The FBI, UK’s National Crime Agency and Europol hope to squash the insidious Gameover Zeus botnet to bits under a joint project called Operation Tovar. According to US Deputy Attorney General Cole, the three agencies (with help from various security firms) have successfully disabled not only the botnet itself, but also associated malware Cryptolocker. Authorities have apparently taken control of the Gameover bots and seized its command servers over the weekend, effectively freeing 300,000 of the 500,000 to 1 million infected Windows computers. Even better, they’ve found the crime ring behind the botnet and have charged alleged Russian mastermind Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev with hacking, different types of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.

Gameover Zeus, for those who’ve never heard of it in the past, is a P2P malware that pilfers banking information and initiates wire transfers to overseas bank accounts. It’s typically propagated through spam emails disguised as bills or invoices embedded with malicious links — the kind you tell your grandparents to never click. Once Gameover worms its way into a system, that computer becomes part of the extortion ring’s global network of infected machines, which funnel ill-gotten info back to the criminals. The perpetrators would sometimes also install compromised PCs with Cryptolocker, a “ransomware” that takes users’ files hostage until they pay up. According to the FBI’s estimates, the criminals have stolen over $100 million using both Gameover and Cryptolocker. But whether that’s enough for Bogachev to stand trial in the US (home to 25 percent of the affected machines) remains to be seen, as Russia does not extradite accused criminals. For now, all the authorities can do is spread word about the botnet and help people remove it from their computers.

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Via: Reuters

Source: The United States Department of Justice, US-CERT, FBI