Re: [Iotops] can we create protocols that securely transfer ownership?

Michael,

Thanks for the dumpsterfire pointer.

Yes, in addition to being a good story, the point is who controls the
firmware in our things, and how bad it can get not only when the
manufacturer enforces DRM, but the gov't enables the behavior
(criminalizing jailbreaking).

Or the issues that arise when the manufacturer fails to properly maintain
the firmware, or goes out of business.

Cheers,
Andy

On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 12:30 PM Michael Richardson <mcr+ietf@sandelman.ca>
wrote:

>
> Andrew G. Malis <agmalis@gmail.com> wrote:
>     > Now that there seems to be at least a few people on the list, I
> would like
>     > to suggest that this be put into the charter as recommended reading:
>
>     >
> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/
>
> Tales of dystopian machine dominated futures abound. There is an entire
> subarea of sociology that deals with the counter-cyclical nature of SF.
> (SF is happy when times are dark, and SF is dystopian when times are good)
> For those that like to keep up on the latest stupidity, given that you
> probably aren't reading comp.risks anymore, I suggest:
>   http://www.firemountain.net/mailman/listinfo/dumpsterfire
>
> Andrew, I presume that the thing we need to take home from this tale of
> abusive *DRM*  (nothing specific to do with IoT) is that we need real
> transfer of ownership.
>
> That's why the charter proposes to work on issues that include:
>   - factory provisioning of devices
>   - onboarding of devices
>   - administrative control of devices
>   - software/firmware upgrades
>   - end of life management of devices
>
> There is a significant tussle between:
>    1) running the software *you* want on *your* devices
>    2) running the software that external entity X says is secure
>
> Vernor Vinge, in _Rainbows End_, written in 2006, and set in 2025,
> predicts a world where governments say, "Enough is Enough", and they
> stop letting anyone other than them decide what software will run on
> personal
> computing devices, and core Internet routers. (X=government above)
> Sure, you can have as many layers of virtualization as we like (the
> protagonist's teenage granddaughter sets him up with win95^Wfvwm95), but
> they control the turtle at the bottom.
>
> I coined a term Internet of Øwned Things => IøT.
> This is the set of things where the device can actually be owned by the
> person who bought it.  (vs pwned things, where a hostile owns things)
>
> My take: if you can't control what software runs on your toaster^Wthing,
> then
> you don't really øwn it.
>
> --
> ]               Never tell me the odds!                 | ipv6 mesh
> networks [
> ]   Michael Richardson, Sandelman Software Works        |    IoT
> architect   [
> ]     mcr@sandelman.ca  http://www.sandelman.ca/        |   ruby on
> rails    [
>
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF@sandelman.ca>   . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting )
>            Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide
>
>
>
>
>