Kickstarter fail

Crowdfunding yet again shows the power of paranoia and stupidity to relieve people of their money.

The anonabox project has just been suspended after it was found that the creator had simply taken an off the shelf router and put open source software on it and then created a very lax configuration (which you could download and easily decrypt the root password) in an attempt to cash in on the post-Snowden era internet paranoia.

So this was aimed at people who are not tech savvy enough to set up some sort of internet protection for themselves but in reality would have needed someone with some linux knowledge to actually make it secure.   It is possible that every anonobox would have had the same SSH keys and same root password, which would effectively render them a prime target.

The creator claims he would have told customers to change the various security parameters after buying but if you can do that you can probably setup the software yourself without the need for one of these boxes.

The theory behind the project has a vaguely sound basis (although the way a fresh leak always seems to pop up just at the right moment to grab the media attention is rather fishy) but there are a million and one guides and howtos out in internet land detailing just how to do this all for yourself.   Which goes back to an earlier post where I talked about the current generation requiring everything handing to them on a plate all neatly bundled up and ready to go.   No need for brain interaction.

Now to wait for my heatpipe self heated butter knife and LOHAN engraved pint mug.