Kill Switch

 The kill switch has been a hotly debated topic for as long as I can remember.

If you don't pay your electricity bills the municipality will cut you off.

We accept this when it comes to utilities but have difficulty with processing that your TV, smartphone or computer can be "bricked" by a kill code from the manufacturer.

The recent riots in KZN brought this front and centre when Samsung announced that all their TVs, that were looted, would be remotely disabled. This was done in an effort to maintain the prices on new units on the shelf today.

The public however was shocked to find out that this kill switch even existed.

One should now take a second look at all the appliances in your kitchen and realise that if the manufacturers could remotely kill your devices, so too could hackers. We live in a world where we accept that our pcs can be hacked but now it has dawned on the general public that every electronic device that is connected to wifi or the internet of things can be hacked and disabled.

Weapons too can be hacked.

All modern weapons systems rely heavily on electronics in an attempt to mitigate the friendly fire casualty rate. This implies that someday one might find oneself defenceless as you square up against the county that manufactured the weapons.

The fact that the armies of the world stopped using America's free GPS testifies to this sentiment.

This has admittedly not worked so well for Americans who have, by leaving Afghanistan, upgraded the Taliban with the most sophisticated weapons on the planet.

Getting back to the issue at hand.

The ability to disable a machine if some conditions are not met, or terms of service beached, is terrifying on its own.

Imagine machines in intensive care wards and the pcs behind traffic lights and train schedules being disabled.

Should manufacturers wield this much power.?

This is the real question.

𝓜 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓴
AUG 2021