What "smart House"? They repeat about him at every step, but only a few saw him. Accessory manufacturers aggressively use this label, and we, ordinary consumers, dutifully "peck" at it. Editorial staff site decided to clearly distinguish between two technology segments, deriving from there two completely different trends. Stop being deceived!

Recently, we began to actively follow the topic of the "smart home" and receive requests for device reviews, which are often attributed to it. In this regard, we decided to prepare a small but capacious article on this topic.

What is a "smart home" and why it is not yet available

Let's close our eyes for a moment and say this cliché that is overused by marketers. "Smart House"! What are you presenting at this moment? Ten or fifteen years ago, you would have remembered a futuristic movie: where windows are curtained by themselves, where light and climate are supported by an autonomous system with artificial intelligence where coffee is prepared in the morning in advance without your participation, and so on.

This is the “smart home”. Today he is not at all futuristic - but real one hundred percent. Only it will not appear on its own. You should initially think over such a project at the stage of laying the foundation of your future home. Or do it in an apartment before a major renovation. You will also need a very substantial amount of money because similar solutions require the involvement of professionals, installation and deployment of specific equipment.

In short, a "smart home" is when everything is cool and beautiful, like in a movie, but for big money and a lot of time. In the next five years, little will change in terms of time and money in Russia. While the real "smart home" is just trying to break through to the masses, marketers of all stripes are building effective advertising campaigns on this immense word. As a result, the consumer himself sits and does not understand anything.

Thanks to the efforts of the media, in the minds of modern geeks, a smart home is a light bulb Philips HUE, sockets with Wi-Fi module, weather sensors Netatmo, sensor sets Lapka etc. But in reality, these are devices of a completely different format, keeping up with the trend called "Internet of Things", IoT.

What is IoT and why is it trending now?

V IoT includes a special class of purely consumer devices, which by themselves cannot become the basis of a "smart home", but profess similar ideas. The very phrase "Internet of Things" implies two key elements of this trend: ordinary objects that are able to connect to the Web. In an ideal world, these items should also exchange data with each other.

Roughly speaking, IoT Is a coffee maker that has an iPhone application and prepares coffee at the same time as the alarm goes off. IoT is a set of light bulbs Philips HUE, which change the color and brightness of the light at the request of the owner. This is the same set of sensors Lapka measuring the ecological situation around. And many, many other existing and future gadgets that connect to our iPhones - for the sake of displaying data or controlling functions.

It becomes necessary to separate “smart objects” of the IoT format and “smart home” for a simple reason. The largest companies in the world in the coming years will be furiously researching and releasing products that meet exactly the challenges of the IoT. Advances in technology have made smart refrigerators and Wi-Fi toasters a reality. Each of them is interesting in a vacuum of their possibilities, but their installation in the house will never make the latter truly "smart".

This is the difference. You can buy a basket of smart accessories, but none of them - whether together or separately - will be part of a true "smart home".

What a "smart home" really looks like

First of all, a “smart home” is not a set of “smart bulbs”, but a central “brain” that monitors and controls all communications in an apartment, climate and electricity. The key element of a real "smart home" that everyone dreams of is its software and technical platform... It is this "base" that connects at the lowest level to your pipes, electrical panel and heating system in order to control it.

There are many such low-level control systems. For example, there are promising software solutions - for example, the environment Apple HomeKit, which in the future will unite all "smart coffee makers" into a single and truly efficient network that exchanges data with each other. But without a central control system, these conversations won't go beyond meaningless marketing.

Control systems for "smart homes" are not nearly as much publicized as "sockets" and "light bulbs", but they exist, flourish and develop for many decades. Many of them are very expensive, as they include fine-tuning software and specific computer components, plus various sensors, communication equipment, and much more.

Lost in thought, the editorial staff site I tried to look for such companies in Russia that offer really working systems for creating a “smart home”. We were especially interested in those who approach the issue from a purely Russian, impenetrable side. To be able to deliver easily, quickly and forever. And preferably for a penny.

A primordially Russian "smart home"

The company responded to our request Ektostroy offering a special solution for our country: "Smart home" in Russian, impenetrable and adapted to our harsh realities. Their system does not depend on the availability of electricity in the house. She doesn't need internet. It works with the highest reliability and does not require further investment, and is able to make life easier and prevent a local man-made disaster.

: behind the temperature in pipes, behind boilers, behind the supply of electricity, behind heating devices and much more. And not only tracking, but also management... The entire system works via a GSM network, does not require any form of Internet, and processes commands via SMS messages.

Example. You are sitting at work, 50 kilometers from your country house. We haven't been there for two months. What if he was robbed? What if he had a problem with the heating system? Suddenly they turned off the electricity, and you are going to go there tomorrow with the guests? The idea behind Ectocontrol is to notify user immediately about the situations described above. This is what allows a person to take the necessary measures on time: arrive on time and eliminate the problem before it causes critical consequences.

Or another example. You are going to the dacha. Even when you leave the house, you send a technical message to your Ectocontrol station, which starts the heating system in the house. Come to warmth and comfort. We rested, went out, closed the gate - they sent a message about turning off the system or working at a low temperature. The pipes remain warm, the house does not freeze through to the end, and you always know what the temperature is in it.

Ektostroy and his team attracted us with their enthusiasm and the fact that their product differs from the existing ones on the market in a number of interesting, sometimes unique qualities. Instead of briefly describing the capabilities of the system, we decided to go further - and go to the filming of the installation process of the Ectocontrol system.

In the coming days, we will tell you how one of the most promising systems of the Russian "smart home" works. Until then, don't be fooled. "Smart home" may end with a "smart lamp", but it does not start with it;)

Smart home sensors work according to the same principle: they transmit a signal via wi-fi to the base module, a box the size of a home router. The basic module goes online and communicates with a smartphone. All sensors can be controlled through a mobile application from anywhere where there is an access to the network.

Why don't the sensors themselves go online, why do we need a basic module? There are many sensors. Imagine that ten people come to your house, and everyone is connected to wi-fi. Some networks will survive, some will not. Add family members' devices - smartphones, laptops, stationary computers, tablets ... To serve such a busy network, you need a personal system administrator, just like in an office. The base module distributes the channels so that the radio waves on which all electronic devices in the house communicate do not interfere with each other.

Sensors for water leaks, doors opening and closing, smoke, cameras and motion sensors are connected to the central module, which communicates with you via the Internet via a mobile application.

Here are five smart home features that can make your life easier and more enjoyable.

1. Remote control of outlets

Did I turn off the iron?

Buy an iron that turns itself off. Take a picture of the iron as you leave the house. Check all outlets. Call your household and neighbors, ask them to check. Or plug in a smart plug. It looks like an adapter. If you suddenly doubt that you have removed the plug when leaving the house, you can open the circuit with a few passes across the smartphone screen - and you will probably save the house from fire, and yourself from unnecessary worries.

If there are children at home, the smart plug becomes even more useful. It will help when the smoke detector (it can also be made part of the "smart home", we will talk about it later) is triggered in the room where the electrical appliances work. It's far from home, you are at work or on vacation, what happened is unknown, but you can remotely de-energize the room. Balm for the soul.

The white adapter with LED is the smart socket. It is controlled from a mobile application: one press of a button, and the outlet is de-energized.

Some smart plugs also save you money. They work like a counter, the indicators of which you see in mobile application... Is the device winding too many kilowatts? Disable! It is convenient if you, leaving the country house, forgot to turn off the warm floor or other power-consuming device.

2. Fire alarm

You have something burning

Fire alarms are complex and expensive. And a smoke detector connected to a smart home system is easy. It mounts to the ceiling, connects to the base in five minutes, and lasts 12 months until it's time to change the battery. The sensitivity is adjusted so that the siren does not turn on from cutlets burnt in a frying pan or cigarette smoke, but I felt serious smoke. If the room is filled with smoke, you will know immediately: notifications will come to email and push notification, and a loud siren will sound in the room.

A wireless smoke detector connected to the central unit will warn you of smoke wherever you are.

3. Water leakage sensors

Didn't we flood the neighbors?

The third major householder fear is water leakage. An unreliable pipe joint, a weakened tap, or just an overflowing bathtub. Or your apartment is empty. What if the heating was already on, and the battery leaked? Install water leakage sensors in the most insidious places. They do not react to small splashes, only to serious accidents. The notification will be sent to the mail and displayed on the screen. True, the sensor cannot do anything about the leak - you have to go and save everything. But it's best to do it as early as possible.

An added bonus: the leak sensor is made wireless. Wires and water are not compatible things, and they also get in the way. And a cake-sized wireless device can be fixed anywhere. And don't forget to change the batteries.

A water leakage sensor alerts you to troubles such as leaking pipes and an overflowing bathtub.

4. Sensors open / close

Did I close the door?

Leaving home, turn the key and pull the handle a couple of times: this habit will help you not to worry about whether you (or forgetful guests and children) have left everything wide open. But in order not to rely on an unstable human memory, you can install a magnetic sensor for closing or opening doors. Then notifications will come when the door is opened or closed. The same can be done with windows. The main thing is to turn off the sensor on a day when you are expecting a lot of guests.

Even if you never forget to close the door, the sensor comes in handy to monitor children.

5. Cameras, motion sensors

Monitor and guard

If in the 90s your neighbor had a camera mounted in a peephole on a heavy iron door, then your neighbor was not an easy person. The camera can now be installed with much less effort and expense than twenty years ago, and it doesn't look like you have suitcases of currency in your bedroom. Cameras, microphones (and cameras with a microphone, and even with a speaker) and motion sensors can be connected to the “smart home”. Configure the motion sensor so that it reports the movement of a person, but ignores the cat. You can record, or you can watch live - just like that, just in case. Modern "smart" cameras have a passive mode: they start recording only when they sense movement. Some cameras also see at night, in the infrared range.

A small wi-fi camera monitors everything that happens around and reports to you around the clock. She also sees in the infrared range - and therefore not only during the day; most of these devices have a microphone and speaker.

Pleasant trifles

Not vital, but pleasant functions of the "smart home"

The motion sensor is installed not only for security purposes. Recently, Muscovite Konstantin Konovalov dropped such a device into his mailbox, and now he receives notifications on his smartphone when the postman brings a receipt for payment of utilities or a postal notice. Or the latest issue of Popular Mechanics by subscription. Some tricksters put a portable home camera over a saucepan in which dumplings are being cooked - to see them float while they themselves are resting in another room.

"Smart" lamps are lighting control from the smartphone screen. Even a child can adjust the color, turn it on or off.

Once you start optimizing, it's hard to stop. You can stick a humidity sensor in a flower pot and do not forget to water. You can install a "smart" air quality controller in the nursery and do not forget to ventilate. Humidity can be controlled in the same way. And one last thing: "smart" bulbs eliminate the need to get up to turn off the light. This can be done without letting go of the smartphone.

"Smart home" is a remote control for all electrical appliances in the house. Some features make life a little more pleasant, while others save you from serious everyday problems. The Russian market for smart consumer electronics is not yet very developed. One of the pioneers is MegaFon: it offers Security or Basic kits, which can be supplemented according to personal preferences and needs. Each set includes a control center and compatible wireless devices- cameras and sensors; however, you can also choose individual devices to your liking.

Yesterday only geeks and enthusiasts dealt with smart homes, and today we, without suspecting anything, go to buy a spare light bulb, and return with a real smart device. In other words, the “smart home” enters our life so unceremoniously and mercilessly that soon, be it, there will be no brick left of “ordinary” houses.

At the same time, most of us have such a vague concept about smart home systems that over time the confusion in our heads only grows. We, of course, know that coffee makers have learned to make coffee at a given time, and the light will turn on when we ask it, but here's how it works - here the devil will break his leg.

Do we know what a smart home is? Smart lamps, coffee makers, robotic vacuum cleaners ... A real techno-revolution is going on around us - and maybe it's time to get to know the world of home automation better.

At the same time, almost all articles on the Internet either say a couple of words about this, or are intended for those very geeks who have already eaten more than one dog in this matter. Once we have already corrected this misunderstanding and published an article about a smart home, but today we decided to repeat ourselves - even clearer, even clearer, even more concise than last time. Let's start an excursion into the world of smart home.

Introduction: terms and history

First things first, remember that smart home is the marketing name for home automation. The term includes everything that our home can accommodate: smart vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, refrigerators, light bulbs, radiators, humidifiers, temperature sensors, etc. In English, our “smart home” corresponds to the term “smart home”. At the same time, you can come across the term "multiroom" - these are the same smart devices, but concerning audio-video equipment: cinema centers, smart speakers, and so on.

There is also an English expression "smart house" - it is associated with various control systems in multi-apartment buildings: water supply, central heating and security. As a rule, these questions are not included in our “smart home”, but if it comes to your personal home, then why not.

Historically, home automation has been around since the early 1960s, following the explosive growth of computers. At first, everything worked on punched cards and tapes, but even then, control systems could turn on devices on a schedule and communicate with alarm systems. True, all this took place in the homes of enthusiastic inventors ... So, the Spira brothers already in the 61st year patented the first dimmer - a device that automatically regulates the light.

Automation devices were created independently in different parts of the world, and in the end, in 1978, the Scots from Pico Electronics created a universal data transfer protocol for all these devices. The standard was called X10, and it was then that the doors learned to slide open automatically, and the lights came on with a bang.

The further history of the smart home is the history of the creation of such universal "languages" for various devices (for example, the electronic bus CEBus). The fact is that the manufacturers of smart devices still could not agree among themselves which protocol to use. It's funny that this problem persists to this day - and is one of the most important in the matter of home automation.

You can also remember 1984, when the American Homebuilding Association first coined the term “smart home,” and 1999, when Disney popularized the idea with a film about the intelligent computerized home.

How it works?

The center of any home automation system is the controller - this is the computer that processes the commands and sends them to the necessary appliances and devices. Typically, this is a separate device, installed somewhere in an accessible place. But sometimes your smartphone or tablet can act as a controller - this happens, for example, in Apple's HomeKit system from Apple. As a rule, devices from different manufacturers can be connected to a controller operating with a universal data transfer protocol.

So the controller is at the center of the system. On the one hand, we have “senses” around the house, which will provide him with various information - these are various sensors: temperature, humidity, leak detection, etc. When the sensor detects something, it sends the data to the controller, which analyzes it. We can communicate with the controller directly, bypassing the sensors: by sending commands to it from a smartphone or control panel.

And finally, on the other side of the system, there are "active" devices, that is, our smart devices. The controller, depending on the programmed algorithms or information received from the sensors, gives commands to smart devices - and they, in turn, make our life more convenient.

To summarize, the smart home system consists of three components:

sensors (sensors) that are sensitive to the surrounding space;

a central controller (or hub) that processes all information and sends commands to devices;

and the instruments themselves performing various tasks.

How do all these components connect to each other? In two ways: by wire or radio. It is clear that the wireless method is more convenient for installation: nothing needs to be installed - bought, installed and forgotten. However, wired systems are much safer as they do not rely on home communication. Wi-Fi networks that can be susceptible to crashes and even attacks.

I will also mention centralized and decentralized smart home systems. The former are controlled by one controller module - as described above in this section. The more devices are connected to each other, the more devices are subject to one controller, the more complex and interesting the scenarios of their work. However, there are also decentralized systems of several chains of devices or even single stand-alone devices. Such systems are less flexible in customization, but they are more secure: one component fails - the rest do not care about anything.

Now let's move on to what smart systems are. I'll break the description down into sections and start with smart light.

"Smart light"

These words unite a whole class of lighting-related devices, from dimmer switches to smart bulbs and blinds. We classify the functions of "smart light" - the main capabilities of such systems are as follows:

switching on / off lighting depending on the time or the presence of a person in the room;

brightness adjustment depending on the time of day, the number of people and other triggers;

shading the room when turning on the projector or TV;

regulation of the amount of natural light - automation of curtains and blinds;

light notifications about various events;

imitation of the presence of people in the room to ensure safety;

design scenarios for lighting a room, changing dynamically or by commands (a set of Nanoleaf lamps);

• custom scripts or algorithms, such as changing white light to soft light while reading.

Microclimate

This class includes air conditioning, heating, humidification and ventilation systems, and all this confusion is called the abbreviation HVAC (HVAC). The goal is to make life comfortable, but also save energy. Since human health directly depends on these systems, special attention is paid to safety when creating HVAC - therefore, microclimate systems often work autonomously, independently of other smart home devices. Among the functions of the HVAC are the following:

maintaining a comfortable temperature by regulating the operation of batteries, heaters and underfloor heating;

lowering the temperature to a comfortable level at night;

saving electricity by turning off or reducing the intensity of heating;

humidification, dehumidification, ionization and purification of indoor air;

fresh air supply with fans, fan coil units and air conditioners;

automation of the operation of water supply systems, for example, shutting off valves in the absence of the owners' home.

An example of a convenient and simple smart thermostat is. The same brand makes a bunch of other smart home devices that are compatible with the Apple HomeKit system. So if you are a user of apple devices - acquaintance with Elgato is simply a must. You can buy these devices.

Security

Security is a loose concept, and in fact, even a conventional alarm in your apartment can be called a component of a smart home. However, the true capabilities of security automation know no bounds, especially when supplemented with a variety of sensors and sensors. Let's name the main functions of smart security systems:

surveillance using cameras, video intercoms and night vision devices;

saving surveillance video files to the cloud or built-in storage;

signaling and calling security services;

control of the integrity of windows, doors, walls and fences of the home area;

monitoring of the state of opening / closing of windows and doors;

control of access rights to the premises using smart locks;

tracking leaks;

detection of fire hazardous situations and their elimination;

monitoring of wiring operation and protection against short circuits ((thermal imagers).

The company's gadgets are examples of convenient security devices. Their distinctive feature is that you do not need to fiddle with installation or configuration for a long time. A controller (available separately) can be used to control a variety of sensors that can be purchased separately or in a single kit.

Good cameras are made by Ezviz. The brand also has a lot of sensors in its arsenal: leaks, door opening / closing, etc. As in the case of Fibaro, the company also has one for a smart home. Let's get acquainted with Ezviz devices.

Observing children, old people and animals

This category can come in handy, even if you do not plan to create a smart home out of your home. Smart devices are very successful in helping make life easier when someone needs your help and supervision. Let's list the capabilities of such devices:

video surveillance of the object in real time;

two-way audio and video communication via video nurses and separate microphone systems;

push notifications about movements or loud sounds;

closing access to premises and automated movement;

object location monitoring;

monitoring the activity and health indicators of the object.

Ring devices are examples of functional and easy-to-use smart cameras and smart video doorbells. These cameras support the night vision function, automatically detect movement in the field of view, and shoot in excellent quality.

Smart devices

The most "delicious" class of home automation systems is what many usually mean by a smart home. This includes smart kettles, pressure cookers, vacuum cleaners, and other household helpers. The list of these devices is endless, so I'll just try to classify them briefly:

kitchen appliances: smart cookers, refrigerators, multicooker, etc .;

other household appliances: vacuum cleaners, scales, washing machines, irons, etc .;

smart furniture and interior items: automatic doors, curtain rods, curtains, lampshades, wardrobes, etc.;

multimedia devices: smart speakers, TVs, projectors, karaoke systems, etc.;

games and entertainment: construction robots, educational games, etc. (robots).

Versatile automation protocols

As I said before, the main problem of the modern smart home is the fragmentation of the market. This means that many smart devices may not work with each other at all. And in the best case scenario, you will have a variety of smartphone apps for each one. Not the most convenient option when you think about it. Some companies offer complete turnkey systems where everything works perfectly, but in this case you cannot combine the devices you like: for example, a smart one and a humidifier from Apple.

The most obvious solution is to use devices that support the universal data transfer protocol. Today the most promising of these "languages" are the Z-Wave and ZigBee protocols. Both of them were designed not only for convenience, but also for safety. The protocols have a so-called mesh structure. If any node of the system is damaged, commands are sent through any available node (device). Thus, if one component fails, the entire system continues to operate.

Smart home - future or present?

Imagine Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, invited you to my house. As you enter the spacious hallway, smart assistant Jarvis turns on a moderately bright light so you can take off your shoes and hang your outerwear. In the living room, an assistant sets up a soft light that is comfortable for relaxation. Mark asks Jarvis to play some nice background music - and the sound of Miles Davis' saxophone comes from the speakers. After dinner, you decide to watch a movie, and Jarvis turns on the TV for you, and the lights dim to a minimum. While you enjoy watching, the smart assistant does not sit still: he monitors the safety of Mark's daughters, and if the children cry, Jarvis, in the voice of Morgan Freeman, will immediately inform his father about it.

Immersion in the world of "smart homes" is not necessarily a difficult and painstaking job here and now. It is quite possible to start small: buy a smart light bulb, then purchase a controller and add another device to the system. Gradually, you will feel like a fish in water in matters of automation.

The bell rings - guests have come. Jarvis immediately scans the visitors and informs the owner of the house who is at the door. After a pleasant evening, you go to bed. In the morning, Jarvis prepares breakfast for all the guests, and for Mark he has a clean T-shirt in store - he shoots it from the pump right into the hands of Zuckerberg!

This example of organizing a smart home is just one of many. Bill Gates' home may surprise even more: it is equipped with a glass elevator with voice control; pool with automatic tuning comfortable water temperature; control system for every plant in the garden and in the house and much more.

Of course, to have such a smart home, you need to lead a successful company. But in general, smart technologies and automation systems are no longer the prerogative of the elite: the market is growing, everything appears on it. more solutions for consumers. To set up your smart home, you just need a desire to immerse yourself in the topic and get directly involved in the organization. Of course, there are many offers of completely ready-made solutions - for example, from BTicino, Crestron, Legrand and others - but you can start small. Say, from a smart light bulb - why not?

The amazing era of IoT, the Internet of Things - the global interaction of everything with everything through the network - is, in fact, just beginning, and the smart home is a good example of what awaits us in the future, but is available today.

Don't forget about ours: here we regularly publish interesting articles about technology and, of course, up-to-date reviews on gadgets and smart devices. Join us on the Yandex.Zen platform.

Threats to the development of the "Internet of Things" and modern approaches to cybersecurity were discussed in Moscow

On May 23-24, Moscow hosted a key cybersecurity event - Positive Hack Days, organized by Positive Tecnologies. It was attended by about 5 thousand experts who discussed the main trends and problems of data protection. This year, analysts call the development of the IoT - the "Internet of Things" one of the main problems. The correspondent of Realnoe Vremya also attended the event.

Analysts predict that by 2025 the main “users” of the world wide web will not be people, but smart devices. For example, smart TVs and multicooker with Wi-Fi control, surveillance cameras and smart home elements. Positive Technologies experts have compiled the top 5 most dangerous devices for the user with access to the Internet.

First of all, this is the heart of the whole home network- Wi-Fi or 3G-4G router. Experts find up to 10 vulnerabilities in these devices every month. The developers, in turn, are in no hurry to eliminate them - in the pursuit of cheap devices, the firmware of the router may not be updated, and manufacturers save on testing and security.

True, the user remains the most vulnerable element of the router. As Positive Technologies experts found out, out of 100 devices, 15 passwords have never been changed from the factory ones. This means that anyone can get into his "brains" and program him for any actions.

Analysts predict that by 2025 the main "users" of the world wide web will not be people, but smart devices.

CCTV cameras are no less vulnerable. These devices pose a greater threat to business: about 90% of those used by small and medium-sized enterprises have critical vulnerabilities. A hacker can spy on an office through CCTV cameras with little or no effort.

Navigation and wireless control have also proven to be good targets for hackers. To demonstrate this, Positive Technologies experts decided to play magicians - they transferred watches on cell phones right in the pockets of viewers and set fake GPS coordinates, confusing phone navigation. And if now the failure of the navigator, by and large, only threatens unmanned aerial vehicles, then a hacker can do a lot of misfortunes on unmanned vehicles. Resetting the time and date, in turn, invalidates site security certificates, opening the door for cyberattacks.

Continuing the trick, security experts intercepted the wireless keyboard signal. At one time, hackers used keylogging programs that recorded all keystrokes and sent them to the owner. With the development of wireless keyboards, this can be done by an operator sitting at a distance of up to several hundred meters. And the cheapness of the equipment - about 300 rubles - threatens massive espionage.

“Generals are always preparing for the previous war. Internet things are just a consequence of the problem. The main problem is the technological debt accumulated by IT companies. The first victim of the race for price is safety, and in an attempt to create a competitive price, companies sacrifice it, ”says Artem Gavrichenkov, chief engineer of QRator Labs.

Artem Gavrichenkov: “Generals always prepare for the previous war. Internet things are just a consequence of the problem. The main problem is technological debt accumulated by IT companies "

Experts suggest patching the hole in the security perimeter, starting from the head. No measures will save the user who will not change the router password himself and will open suspicious links. Also, experts say, the state should develop certification standards for devices on the market, which would include the requirements for the required level of protection.

WannaCry: how many times have the world been told

Alexey Novikov, head of the cybercrime investigation department of Positive Technologies, made a presentation with this title. WannaCry ransomware is just one of a list of hundreds of such programs known to mankind. A virus that encrypts data or places permanent banners on the screen and demands money for "curing" a computer is almost the same age as the Internet.

WannaCry became known only due to its wide geography and the scale of the attack. Interestingly, the beneficiaries of the program did not even write it, but simply found it on the Internet and made a "seeding". The vulnerability exploited by the virus was known back in March. The distribution includes those users who do not properly update their computers.

“Basically, the initial propagation vector using a vulnerable port at the perimeter is a very simple, very easy path. Nothing prevented the attacker from complicating the exploit and ... infecting even those organizations whose perimeter was protected, ”noted Aleksey Novikov.

Alexey Novikov: “To be honest, I doubt that an attacker will cash out this money. It seems to me that the goal was not money, otherwise he would have come up with a more sophisticated delivery and receipt mechanism. "

For the same reason, the expert doubts that the purpose of the ransomware distribution was money. Answering the question whether it would be difficult to cash out the funds received by a hacker, Alexey Novikov suggested that, oddly enough, hardly anyone would do this:

“To be honest, I doubt that an attacker will cash out this money. It seems to me that the goal was not money, otherwise he would have come up with a more sophisticated delivery and receipt mechanism. Earlier, we saw precedents when attackers exploited this vulnerability, but their activity was limited to using the computing power of servers. The cybercriminals earned much more from this than from WannaCry and even withdrawn money. In principle, this can be monetized, but in the case of WannaCry, "I doubt it," concluded the speaker.

During the forum, the thesis "No patch from human oversight" was repeatedly sounded. Acronis, which offers users cloud-based solutions for data protection, took on the denial. Their essence is that the company's product periodically makes backups, with the help of which you can restore data on your computer and smartphone until the moment of infection, right down to the icons on the desktop. In addition, the program has a built-in function that detects RansomWare at the moment of infection and blocks its spread.

"Statistics WannaCry infections itself showed that companies are rather negligent about software updates. The patch was urgently released back in March; quite a long time has passed since March. Those companies suffered that did not have time or did not want to update for some reason ... The main problem is precisely in the way of thinking, in responding to news, leaks, trends, in the organization of work of internal IT services and services information security", Says Yulia Omelyanenko, manager of the standardization and risk management department of Acronis.

Yulia Omelyanenko: "The WannaCry infection statistics in itself showed that companies are rather negligent in their attitude to software updates"

Experts call social engineering one of the main tools for distributing malicious software in general. This is the use of standard patterns of human behavior, with the help of which attackers convince a user to voluntarily download malware onto their computer. How many times in the last month have you received letters where a non-existent grandmother left you an inheritance of a million dollars, which you can get by clicking on the link? Or they tried to download a book “for free, without registration and SMS” from a suspicious site. And an SMS with a proposal to see your photos using a suspicious link?

You can fight social engineering by increasing the technical literacy of employees, Yulia Omelyanenko is sure:

A person who is less tech-savvy and will be the target of attacks.

Stalingrad-online

While the speakers talked about cybersecurity, a real battle for the city was going on in a separate room between representatives of the hacker elite and the IT security services. The hackers were given a cardboard-plastic settlement with hundreds of virtual residents, transport, factories, traffic lights, shopping center, CHP, banks and railway. The city was governed by the same systems that can be found in a metropolis, the layout was needed only for clarity.

The goal of the hackers was to make as much play money as possible. For example, one of the teams intercepted the mayor's SMS containing incriminating evidence, which earned 150 thousand "publis". The Hack.ERS team was able to steal money from SIP telephony users: having hacked accounts, hackers received money using paid calls to short numbers.

A cardboard-plastic settlement with hundreds of virtual residents, transport, factories, traffic lights, a shopping center, a thermal power station, banks and a railway was given to the hackers for looting.

The "intruders" managed to stop the thermal power plant and the oil refinery - by hacking into the corporate network, the hackers revealed the controllers that the organization uses and were able to stop the work of the enterprises. This is due to the "oversight" of administrators of organizations, which was discussed at the IoT meeting: Wi-Fi router was protected by a default password that was not removed by administrators. The vulnerability, which would have taken a sysadmin a minute to fix, knocked out the entire industrial complex of the city. The hackers turned off the power supply to the CHP, which stopped supplying steam to the refinery, which made him stand up too.

Under cover of night, the hackers committed a grandiose theft: almost 4 million "publis" were stolen from the bank. To do this, they previously stole user data, which made it possible to hack the remote banking system. Another team of hackers took advantage of compromised data bank cards, removing 10 "publis" from each. In reality, such an attack would go unnoticed, but would bring the cybercriminals income. A large theft led to an economic crisis, forcing the organizers of the competition to conduct an additional issue of "public".

The organizers of PHDays made the reservation that the city model is an ideal system for hackers. In reality, attackers have fewer resources, and security specialists have more options. However, even such a model is enough to make it clear that a modern hacker can do a lot of trouble by hacking into the banking system, turning off the power of an entire city, or creating chaos in transport.

A new threat is posed by the "Internet of things", when the "smart home" can turn against its owner. Take a look around - perhaps your refrigerator and coffee maker are already plotting against you?