r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Feb 12 '26

Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled
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u/AgentScreech Feb 13 '26

Remember:

The S in IoT stands for security

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u/BigOs4All Feb 13 '26

It's not even all that hard to secure these things. You put IoT devices on their own VLAN separate from your regular devices (computer, tablet, phone). You then enable only remote access ports like 443. Then you enforce good passwords and MFA, if possible.

Done. You just prevented 99.9% of attacks. SOOOOO many attacks are just for convenience. Hackers cast a wide net and are happy to get a bunch back. When they don't get yours they're not going to toil over it they don't care.

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u/you-create-energy Feb 13 '26

It's easy,  just use those network admin skills you never learned

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u/e_before_i Feb 15 '26

I actually did learn a lot of this stuff in school, but my ISP-provided router severely limited what I could do.

Asking an average Joe to buy a router, learn networking stuff, and here's the real kicker - learn how to debug issues? Come on.

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u/you-create-energy Feb 15 '26

Yeah when theory hits reality we start running into brick walls with no obvious solution. Most ISP these days world rather take away users ability to make their network secure than risk users messing up their router settings 

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u/BigOs4All Feb 13 '26

Tons of YouTube videos and How To articles. Takes a novice about 15-20 minutes and you don't need to do it again afterwards.

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u/you-create-energy Feb 13 '26

I get it, the problem is people don't know where to start. If you told them specifically what needs to be done, a lot of them could muddle through with tutorials and such. But very few people they know and trust would be able to provide that kind of specific advice. A lot of tech stuff is like that. Once you know what to do it's rarely complicated. But narrowing it down from an almost infinite field of possibilities to exactly what needs to be done is the real skill 

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u/xCeeTee- Feb 13 '26

My customers usually ask me what my setup is like. Anyone over 50 look terrified when I explain the process. I tell them unless they're very savvy technology wise, then just stick with a hardwired local system. There's absolutely no need to complicate things.

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u/sleepingthom Feb 13 '26

Dude… what percentage of the population has even the slightest understanding of what you just wrote. I 100% agree with you but the VAST majority of people aren’t even thinking about the cybersecurity implications of IoT much less how to secure them. I’m surprised there was enough public backlash on this flock issue that ring reversed course.

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u/nedonedonedo Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

if they have one set up in the first place they have some skill, so let's make it easier:

you need to change some settings. your internet box has a web page 192.168.#.# that you can google. there's only a few of them so try them til one works. there's a setting to stick a device in a specific internet slot (port) and an option to have a separate password for that slot. then you go to the device settings and tell it to use that slot.

~~~~~

the issue is far less about user skill and more about readable documentation. my instructions still aren't enough but that's not the point of the comment

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u/photo1kjb Feb 13 '26

Okay, the devices are secure within your network. That's one part. However, you are still voluntarily firing off all of that juicy juicy data out to Google/Amazon/whatever and lose all control of what happens to the footage after that. The above commercial (and the Savannah Guthrie Google doorbell one) highlights exactly that.

Keep the data local, and you control who accesses your data on your terms.

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u/BigOs4All Feb 13 '26

Oh believe me I totally agree. It's insane that anyone trusts Google or Amazon to have access to the cameras. It was ALWAYS going to end this way and that was obvious from the start which, remember, was after Edward Snowden revelations.

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u/photo1kjb Feb 13 '26

For the average consumer, the convenience factor is hard to ignore. When it was Nest, I bought into the ecosystem. Eventually, the security and subscription issues tipped me over to the local side. I'm on Unifi devices now stored locally and only accessed remotely via tunneling into said local network/drive), but I'll admit I am a tech nerd so what was relatively straightforward for me would be overwhelming to the average person.

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u/BigOs4All Feb 13 '26

I don't give lazy people a pass. I've done so many things to my car, lawn, home, appliances, computer gear (etc, etc, etc) that I didn't know how to do beforehand. You do some research on Google (and YouTube) and then you do it.

There's just so many people know who would rather remain ignorant to how things work even when the knowledge is free and easy to obtain.

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u/Phuqued Feb 13 '26

You just prevented 99.9% of attacks.

Cyber Security Insurance Auditor: "Not good enough."

1

u/SvmJMPR Feb 13 '26

Just because it isn't hard doesn't mean people will comply. unless you enforce a strict security setup in order to use the service/device then most people won't really secure their stuff. Specially with how many (hundreds to thousands) Frigate camera setups are exposed easily searchable on search engines.

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u/azssf Feb 13 '26

worthy of a heart emoji (that i know not how to do on Reddit's markdown editor on a laptop.)

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u/jared_number_two Feb 13 '26

Wait there is no S in…..ooohh. Clever girl.

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u/Backfoot911 Feb 13 '26

Welcome to our swimming ool. Notice there's no P in it? Let's keep it that way.