One thing to consider on a business side, is that security, is like sex. It sells.
The whole IoT industry is front and center in the media and not in a good way. Article after article, of a smart home breach here, and there, and everywhere, is keeping a LOT of the public wary about taking the leap into smart tech.
People just don't trust it.
Sure, you have all of us STEM nerds lapping it up, but there is a much broader market out there.
I do CyberSecurity for Uncle Sam, and on the side, run a Smart Home Security Consulting business. By far, the biggest obstacle people have to taking the leap into Smart Home tech, is security. Rather, the lack of it.
This thread is full of looking inward, at the demands of the community, rather than outward, at expanding that community.
There is a large market out there that HA and Apple are eating up quickly, all because of security.
I completely understand that security is an investment. I also understand using ARO's and SLE's to balance the books when accepting risks. That's wise business, and really, it's responsible business. I work for the Government, so I'm spending tax payer money. I really need to make sure that the budget isn't abused. So, I get it.
You also have to consider what happens to business from a PR sense, if a few home networks are hit with HE hubs in them. Look at what happened to Ring. They took massive losses this last year over a few articles where homes were breached. It wasn't even Ring's fault! They weren't breached. The end user executed terrible security practices, and basically gave the robber the key to the door, then got mad at the door maker when he used it.
It didn't matter though. The media had a sensational, scary story, and they ran with it. Over and over and over.
This could happen here as well. Like it's been said here a lot. Security is mostly up to the end user. While that's true, that's not how it plays out in the perception of the real world. All they will see is that Hubitat got hacked and allowed access to a whole home. The poor children, and that poor single mom. Violated! Sob, cry, whine, sob.
Then the neighborhood Facebook group chats start going, "there is NO chance I'm putting any of that stuff in my house!" That, my friends, is market loss and all of IoT is feeling that right now.
The way you grab those consumers is to market security. It works for Apple. It works for HA. Security is the number one reason consumers list as why they use those ecosystems. Those are consumers that Hubitat should have. Could have!
My consulting job is mostly training tech illiterate people how to employ NIST security best practices in their home, so that they don't have to fear the use of these products, and can benefit from the real security they actually do provide.
All of that said, I love Hubitat and the community. You're not losing me any time soon, that's for sure!
