Security News > 2021 > June > Amazon Sidewalk Mesh Network Raises Security, Privacy Concerns
Amazon this week activated its proprietary mesh network known as Sidewalk, linking tens of millions of Amazon smart devices, each sharing a tiny sliver of their bandwidth to provide a wide network of connectivity even when and where WiFi service is poor or unavailable.
This explains why the default setting contained in the Sidewalk software downloaded and installed by Amazon in participating devices is 'on' - making Sidewalk opt-out rather than opt-in.
It also explains why the phrase "Privacy and security is foundational" to the design of Sidewalk occurs five times in the Amazon Sidewalk Privacy and Security Whitepaper.
Amazon has attempted to design security into Sidewalk - and its efforts have been welcomed by some commentators.
ZDNet reported, "Having read Amazon's privacy and security whitepaper, and looking at Amazon's track record over the years, I'd have no problems using Amazon Sidewalk. Amazon has put a great deal of effort and engineering into this, and it's a clever solution to a problem that affects more and more people who have an ever-expanding ecosystem of IoT hardware in their homes."
"Even though the security architecture seems solid," says Roy Horev, co-founder and CTO at Vulcan Cyber, "These things tend to surface vulnerabilities, and Amazon has been called out for such cases in the past. The fact that you literally share your home devices with your neighbors raises the risk level to a new level. The location of participating devices might be disclosed over the public network in the form of a 'find-your-pet' feature."