Originally Posted By: grelber
OK, the elephant in the room has been decloaked.
Now ... what can the consumer do about 'foiling' the intrusions? Only practical/practicable solutions should be proffered.
• How do I get my refrigerator off-line?
• How do I prevent my toaster from immolating me?
• How do I guarantee that my drug pump won't be hacked by an evil-doer?
• How do I block interference with my motor vehicle's drive-by-wire system(s)?
(And "Go off the grid" and "Live in a cave" aren't viable options.)

  1. Assuming the use of modern devices and going for the highest level of certainty of protection…
    1. Disconnect all WiFi modems, routers, or other devices that can create a WiFi network and connect you computer to the internet using a wired ethernet connection
    2. To keep out signals from neighbor's or malefactor's WiFi devices, create a "Faraday" cage of your residence by lining the floors, ceiling, walls and covering the doors and windows with heavy gauge metal foil (copper is best but ruinously expensive and heavy gauge aluminum can work). Welding the strips of foil together to create an unbroken electrical shield and then connecting the shield to an earth ground.
    3. To protect from signals coming in though the electrical wiring, install a motor/generator system to provide power inside your shielded area. (That is an electric motor powered by the public power source driving a shielded generator that provides the power used inside the shielded area. There is no electrical connection between the motor and the generator.
    4. Install military grade filters on any telephone, cable, or internet connections penetrating the Faraday shield (NOTE: You will need wired phones because cell phones will not work inside the shielded area)
  2. The Old School Method (probably the only alternative for your motor vehicle)…
    1. discard any device that was made in the last 10 years (make that 15 or 20 years for your motor vehicle because fuel system have been computer controlled for a long time) and replace them with older devices manufactured prior to the thrust to computerize everything and connect them to the network.
    2. forego the use of portable phones (smart or otherwise)
    3. Disconnect all WiFi modems, routers, or other devices that can create a WiFi network and connect you computer to the internet using a wired ethernet connection being sure to turn off all WiFi in any computer devices you use.
  3. What most are doing…
    1. Take reasonable precautions (After a surge knocked out some systems in our house, I installed a "whole house" power filter to reduce the risk of power surges but it also filters out RF in the incoming power.)
    2. Keep all devices, operating systems,and software scrupulously up to date (that means no more hanging on to older versions of OS X)
    3. Learn to live with a tolerable level of risk.

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein