Internet of Things news of the week, December 2, 2022 – Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things News and Analysis

Here’s what made IoT news this week. Get this summary delivered to your inbox every Friday with our newsletter.

Do you have a Eufy security camera? Your video is not secure. Given what’s going on with Twitter, we don’t really need another tech company in the headlines. But we have one courtesy of Anker, the company behind the connected device brand Eufy. Eufy claims that video from its smart home cameras is encrypted. That’s fine—provided it’s true. Unfortunately, it’s actually not so safe. A hacker has revealed that you can view any Eufy camera feed using the VLC Media Player app and a unique address of Eufy’s cloud servers. Anker denied the possibility of this hack to The Verge. However, the writers tested the hack and were able to view live footage from their own Eufy cameras. Although there are currently no reported exploits using this hack at scale, I would personally turn off these cameras until this issue is resolved. (The edge)

Learn how to create an event-driven IoT architecture: At the risk of sounding like I’m giving homework, this Amazon tutorial is worth reading. Don’t worry, it’s high enough to be understandable. At the same time, it provides enough detail to clearly explain how the various Amazon Web Services (AWS) tools work with sensor data. More importantly, you can start getting insights from this data as quickly as possible. I also like the best practices for creating an event solution from IoT data. They are applicable both inside and outside the AWS world. (AWS Architecture Blog)

AWS IoT gets better device messaging: Since this week is the big AWS re:Invent show, I’m dubbing some news from Amazon. AWS IoT now supports the MQTT5 message broker. MQTT is a commonly used standard for IoT data and version 5 was ratified in 2019. I guess no one told Amazon so far. Fortunately, you don’t need to use MQTT5 on all devices; Amazon says you can mix and match the newer MQTT5 protocol and the older version 3. With the updated standard, you’ll experience faster message processing, load balancing for receiving messages, and improved performance. acknowledgments for your devices. (Amazon)

You may not recognize your Ecobee application: OK, you obviously know what the Ecobee mobile app is if you have it installed. But did you know that a major UI change is currently rolling out to the app? In early 2023, Ecobee will offer the same interface to older thermostats. I’ve been using this new interface since I reviewed the last Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium, and I love it. It is much easier to change settings and see temperature data. Expect to see it in your Ecobee app soon, if you haven’t already. Next year, the new interface will be pushed to Ecobee smart thermostat with voice control, Ecobee 4, Ecobee 3 and Ecobee 3 lite models. (Ecobee)

Fighting droughts with smart agriculture: I had no idea that 70% of all fresh water usage was for crop growth. But I learned that and more from a recent Inverse article. By simply monitoring soil conditions, farmers can use the data to intelligently water agriculture. And it can reduce water demand by 20-72%. That’s a wide range, but any water savings are a good thing. I also didn’t know that putting sensor antennas underground can have a profound impact on data transmission. This article is well worth reading for this information and more about agricultural IoT solutions. (Reverse)

New York buses gain in artificial intelligence: New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is modernizing its buses with artificial intelligence. Don’t worry, these buses are not autonomous. Instead, AI is used to predict when a bus might fail before it actually does. The MTA started testing the AI ​​system in 2019 on 326 buses, and guess when the number of buses that actually went down started dropping? Yes, in 2019, probably because buses that would have been stuck on the side of the road were repaired before a breakdown. (gothamist)

Need a reference guide to global IoT cybersecurity regulations? This one is aimed at device makers, although as a consumer of IoT devices I also find it quite fascinating. There is a public GitHub repository listing all IoT cybersecurity regulations around the world, by country. At the moment there are only listings for 16 countries, but I expect that to grow over time. It is interesting to read how different countries approach the same problem. You can get these details through links in the repository pointing to regulatory information that is publicly available, but often hard to find. (GitHub)

Build a weather station for Home Assistant: I even know After homework. But many readers use Home Assistant to power their smart homes, so I wanted to introduce this DIY project. Using an ESP32 module, atmospheric pressure sensors, a 3D printed anemometer and a basic rain gauge, you can also get real-time weather data. You’ll have to create the project yourself, but all the code to make it work is provided in this tutorial. And the data looks great in the Home Assistant dashboard! (HackADay)

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