Technology and electronic products

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Electric scooters and the shared economy

If you have spent any time in Los Angeles or New York City recently, you may have noticed adults riding two-wheeled electric scooters − the type we are more accustomed to seeing kids ride. These scooters are the latest transportation tools in the ever-evolving sharing economy.Continue Reading As Electric Scooters Barrel Their Way into the Sharing Economy, Manufacturers and Their Insurers Should Prepare for an Influx of New Claims

As tire manufacturers enter the age of the Internet of Things, some are making smart tires equipped with sensors that allow the consumer to view information regarding the tire on applications downloaded to their smart phones. These tires contain small sensors in their sidewalls that do not impact tire performance. The sensors can track the tire’s temperature, the tire’s inflation pressure, the tire’s mileage and even the tire’s load capacity. Not only the consumer can view this information, but so can service technicians maintaining the vehicle and tire.
Continue Reading Passenger Car Tires Drive into the Internet of Things

The recent WannaCry ransomware cyberattack provided another chilling reminder of the potential disruptive power behind the Internet of Things. Even before the WannaCry attack in May 2017, a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on a domain name server provider, Dyn, Inc., took place in October 2016, pushing many popular internet services offline for hours. The Dyn attack, which utilized the malware Mari as the supporting agent, was a sea-change event carried out by hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices, such as routers, security cameras and DVRs, that rely on default factory user names and passwords coupled with weak or nonexistent security protections. It illustrated that hackers can now target vulnerable low-hanging fruit and turn it into a super botnet to carry out the DDoS attack. One takeaway from the Dyn attack is that the exponential growth of devices coming online, some 5.5 million per day according to Gartner, creates an unparalleled ecosystem for malevolent actors to find and weaponize the Internet of Things (IoT).Continue Reading The Internet of Things: A Trifecta of Cyber and Physical Threat Risks

Mini segway or hover board scooterSince our last blog post on lithium-ion batteries, there has been a report that a self-balancing scooter, known as a hoverboard, is the suspected cause for a March 10, 2017, fatal fire that occurred in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The fire resulted in the death of a three-year-old girl. Fire origin and cause experts are still investigating, but statements from persons who escaped the home indicate that a charging hoverboard “exploded” and caused the fire.
Continue Reading Lithium-Ion Batteries: Hoverboard Suspected in Fatal Fire

493279659They are everywhere: in your pocket, in your car, in your hands, in your lap and even “in your face.” Lithium-ion batteries are in nearly every product that has become a staple of modern life, such as smartphones, tablets/notebook computers, digital cameras and headphones. They are in our transportation systems – trains, planes and automobiles. They are involved in our hobbies and recreation, including radio-controlled vehicles, hoverboards and e-bikes. They also show up in some of our vices, such as vaping and smoking e-cigarettes. Though we typically view the batteries and the products they power as innocuous, if something goes wrong it can go catastrophically wrong.
Continue Reading Lithium-Ion Batteries: Small Products, Big Exposures