Andrew O'Hara
On this week's episode of the Homekit Insider Podcast, your hosts discuss Apple's decision to pull the new HomeKit upgrade, talk about some Ring swatting issues, and more.
In the last episode of the year, we go into more detail surrounding Apple's HomeKit architecture upgrade. This was supposed to make our homes faster, but an issue sharing homes has caused Apple to temporarily pull the upgrade option while it readies a fix.
With the holidays, no telling when a fix will be implemented and those who did the upgrade are stuck in their current state.
We also share a story of some criminals that had gotten access to many users' Ring doorbell cameras by guessing their passwords before calling emergency services on them. As the police would respond, they'd film the ongoing raid and stream it online via social media.
Issues like this don't typically happen with HomeKit doorbells as they are by default protected by two-factor authentication and are much harder to gain access to.
We round out the show discussing the EVVR in-wall relay, Govee's LED light strip, and Amazon's plans for Matter on Echo speakers.
HomeKit Insider is taking a brief break. There will be no January 2 episode, and we will be back on January 9.
Links from the show
- Apple halts update to HomeKit's new Home architecture
- Aqara Announce Updated M2 Hub With POE
- Ring doorbell swatting' and livestream scheme
- Building Matter devices with Alexa today
- Govee Led Strip Light M1 has passed Matter certification
- To our eufy Security Customers
- Evvr In-Wall Smart Relay Switch
- EVVR Smart in-Wall Relay Switch
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
3 Comments
Ok so I upgraded my Home as soon as I saw it. Now what?
Interesting ... there is a quote in the Ring swatting article from a Ring representative:
"We take the security of our customers extremely seriously—that’s why we made two-step verification mandatory, conduct regular scans for Ring passwords compromised in non-Ring breaches, and continually invest in new security protections to harden our systems," it said. "We are committed to continuing to protect our customers and vigorously going after those who seek to harm them."
I've always used the two-step/2FA verification in the Ring app and web portal. They support both text-based and Authenticator app based verification and suggest using an Authenticator app. This level of two-step security is fully in-line with many of the other apps that I routinely use, such as MyChart, Google, iCloud, Firefox, Amazon Prime, etc. Something doesn't quite add up unless Ring only instituted the mandatory part after the swatting article was written - or if there was an internal security breach.
People who commit these swatting crimes and the hackers who provide the mechanisms that enable them should be re-homed to a nice cozy cage in Guantanamo Bay.