Home Depot plans to foil shoplifters with power tools that won't work if they're stolen

submitted by thefirststone from businessinsider.com

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[–]HiddenFox 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Bingo! That it, "Opportunity". Like the smart fridge it's pointless but people see and it and somehow think it will be better. Your bluetooth enabled drill will not be cheaper I can assure you of that.

But we are all thinking if this in the wrong context. Everyone else is talking about hacking passed the bluetooth. I propose this scenario.

It's a hot August day, as you walk down the street you see the despair on the faces of you local tradesmen. Sweltering in the heat you approach the youngest teamsters with a proposal. For a mear $20 you have the ability to temporarily "disable" the equipment, presenting an opportunity for an impromptu beach day! A little free time.e for them, a quick $20 for you. Win win! Ransomeware 2.0

[–]AnarchySpeach 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Hadn't even thought of that.

There's really nothing to stop trolls from driving past workers and shutting down equipment. Because the bluetooth is intended to be a security feature there's no physical way of enabling or disabling it externally. They would need an in-store device to wireless fix the problem.

[–]HiddenFox 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I can see it going beyond this. 1st gen for the stores, 2nd generation will link the tools to your phone so that no one can steal them on you.

All along they will be collecting you usage data and selling it off to say....IRS. IRS will be like "hey, Joe carpenter here sure is using his tools alot on the weekend but it says here he only work mon to Friday.... better check to see if he's got a little something going on on the side...

[–]AnarchySpeach 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's why you've got your State Issued Tools for work and the jailbroken ones you have to keep hidden in the floorboards with the illegal books./s

It's crazy how the world is slowly inching its way towards this and so few people are willing to consider the damage this will cause tomorrow.