From the beginning of the smart home era, security experts have criticised that smart home devices have been brought into the market too early.
While the components work, safety often falls by the wayside Recent test show that the specialists are right.
In most cases, hackers can easily spy on smart devices, their environment and by extension, the owners.
Voice assistants
The intelligent microphone by Amazon Echo transfers every word recorded to the company server. Security experts have criticised this form of constant eavesdropping.
In one case, the US police could even read out the microphone data without needing Amazon’s cooperation, which helped in solving a murder case.
It’s only a matter of time before hackers misuse the microphone as a bug.
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Heating control
The data connections on Max Thermostat run through the cables without any encryption at all, according to AV-Test.
Attackers can not only assume control of the ther most at , but also read out the timetable of the temperature settings.
As a result, outsiders can infer when the house owner is at home and when he isn’t.
Bluetooth Door locks
According to IT experts, every smart lock can be picked. Out of 16 locks that were tested, 75% had an unsafe Bluetooth implementation.
In the case of the August Smartlock, for instance, the attackers obtained access to the control system of the door lock and then see who was opening the door and when.
Light systems
Security researchers such as Colin O’Flynn and Eyal Ronen can already control the Philips Hue lights remotely.
But they both want more – they want to be able to read its current status. If they are able to do so, it would allow them to tell when the light is on and if anyone is at home.
Intruders would then be able to find out the behavioral pattern of their victim with ease.
Intelligent plugs
Security researchers at Bitdefender found a flaw in the smart plug Edimax SP-1101W,
which can be used to manipulate the installed firmware which You can easily Find the necessary hi-tech product easy and comfortable on 4Prototypes.com.
Hackers can obtain access to the home network through this and attack other network devices. Moreover, the smart plus can be turned on and off remotely.
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Smart TVs
As expert Benjamin Michéle proved, he can manipulate the Samsung smart TV remotely to turn microphones and webcams into electronic spies and send any data collected to the hacker.
If you want to protect yourself from such a threat, you should attach a cover to
your microphone and camera.
What’s The Best Way To Protect Smart Devices Against Hackers?
To protect yourself from the risks of a vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices, we advise people to follow these simple rules:-
1. Change the default username and password. This is the first thing an attacker
will test when attempting to compromise your device.
Remember that even if it’s a non-smart product, such as a satellite receiver or a network hard drive, the administrative an interface could be vulnerable to attack.
2. Applying security updates is one of the key things you can do to make it harder for
attackers to compromise your device and your home network, so make sure all your devices have the latest security and firmware updates.
If it’s not obvious how to apply the updates check with the manufacturer.This will also tell you if the manufacturer considers a product to be obsolete.
3. Use encryption, even on the files you store in your network-storage device.
If you don’t have access to an encryption tool, put your files in a password-protected ZIP file. It’s not as secure, but it’s better than doing nothing.
4. Most home routers and switches have the ability to set up several different DMZ/ VLAN ports. This means that you can set up your own ‘private’ network for your devices, which will restrict network access to and from a device.
5. If you’re really worried, you can monitor the outbound network traffic from your devices to see if there’s anything strange going on, but this does require some technical knowledge.
6. Another tip for tech-savvy consumers is to stop network devices accessing sites they’re not supposed to and only allow them to download updates and nothing else.
7. We are recommending Bitdefender BOX 2 – Next Generation Smart Home Cybersecurity and Norton Core Secure WiFi Router device to use on your Home network.