That’s data laundering

Why would you connect your washing machine to WiFi in the first place? Like legitimate question.

This sounds like some kind of DDOS attack like the ones that involved connected light bulbs. Malware gets into the light bulb or washing machine and repurposes the infected device to flood targeted servers:

https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-we-know-about-the-massive-cyber-attack-that-took-down-the-internet-on-friday

Obligatory meme wisdom:

https://biggaybunny.tumblr.com/post/166787080920/tech-enthusiasts-everything-in-my-house-is-wired

That's a pretty silly headline for an article that quite clearly states that the issue was with the router's data usage reporting capabilities.

Smart devices are great, but if it's not Zigbee or Zwave and Home Assistant, it can fuck off.

I don't understand the craze of slapping wifi or bluetooth connectivity to everything without giving proper thought. Cameras, television, vehicles, coffee pots, medical devices, laundry machines, hipster juicers... what's next? Is my salt shaker going to have it?

I've been looking for a breast pump recently - I'd like electric so I don't have to manually pump. All of the ones I could find in the shop required an app to connect to the device. Why? What purpose does that serve me? I'd have to make an account, accept needless permissions and cookies and give them access to very personal data about my boobs and milk production - I went with a manual one instead

It's possible that it had some vulnerability which was automatically exploited by one of her majesty's secret services (perhaps with help from their US counterparts) to make it a component of their covert infrastructure.

I’m curious what information a wash machine is sending could be useful to anyone?

Do not buy BS internet connected devices period. There was a time when internet connected devices did exactly they were supposed to do and nothing more. There is literally no reason why most of these devices can't act as their own server and keep your data local and private. Corporations have become far too greedy to trust their cloud won't sell you out in every way it can. The ONLY two reasons a manufacturer adds internet connectivity are:

1. To monitor and collect as much data as possible and/or:

2. To implement a subscription service for something that normally wouldn't require monthly payments.

Corporate closed clouds have proven time and time again that they can't be trusted.

My heat pump can be controlled by an app but it all goes through an external web page for some reason so I noped out of it.

Would be funny as fuck if they were using these devices as Bitcoin miners.

For now, it looks like the favored answer to the data mystery is to blame Asus for misreporting it. We may never know what happened with Johnie, who is now running his LG washing machine offline.

Another relatively innocent reason for the supposed high volume of uploads could be an error in the Asus router firmware. In a follow-up post a day after his initial Tweet, Johnie noted “inaccuracy in the ASUS router tool.” Other LG smart washing machine users showed device data use from their apps. It turns out that these appliances more typically use less than 1MB per day.

Verbosity level 99999

It only would be a big problem if household devices like washing machines are built in a way that makes a connection to the internet mandatory in order to function properly. Imagine you can't do your laundry because of an internet outage.

Name any household device (washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, toaster, water kettle, iron, coffee maker, (microwave) oven, ...) that has been improved in functionality by connecting it to the internet, making it a internet-of-things-device. I can't think of any.

We have a washing machine that cannot be connected to the internet. After starting the program, we set up a timer on our smartphone, 15 minutes longer than the time the washing machine display is predicting. Works like a charm.

If you bought a washing machine that needs Internet access you are a fucking idiot.

It’s an older meme sir, but it checks out.

You mean 3.7kg of load right?

Right? ...

Bloatware has spiraled out of control. It's a consequence of coding becoming easy and accessible. Programming is no longer the domain of idealistic nerds. It is possible for anyone to make garbage tech wares.