Smart Homes Not Smart Enough For Hackers

Living the smart life is gaining popularity among busy households and those who appreciate the convenience. Who wouldn’t love to come home to an environment that’s been perfectly planned? Setting lights, temperature, security cameras, and more are at your fingertips. However, the growing popularity of smart technology means one thing for sure – hackers take notice and figure out how to undermine it. Many smart home residents are wondering just how smart the technology is to begin with and is the convenience worth the risk?

With each smart home product on the market offering different household controls, there’s one thing they all have in common – a smart hub. These are the control systems for security, electricity, heating and cooling, and more. A smart hub serial number is the master key to download smart device commands which are then sent to individual devices via the hub. Smart hubs are the nerve center for all the connected devices and they’re vulnerable to hacking.

Experts believe these hubs lack security and the rush to put smart home devices on the market led to this. Newer devices may start addressing security issues, but there are plenty of smart hubs out there already up for grabs. There are precautions a smart homeowner can take while waiting for security to catch up. Of course, nothing is 100% guaranteed but it’s a start.

- As soon as you install any hardware devices, download and apply any updates. These often sit on store shelves for a while and patches get issued during that time that need to be installed right away.
- Never use the default hub password. Change it immediately. - Use a complex password and change it on a regular basis.
- Choose a smart device that encrypts and authenticates communications. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an added bonus and should be utilized whenever available.?
- Don’t share sensitive information about your smart devices, especially serial numbers. Beware posting pictures on social media where a device serial number may inadvertently be shown.
- Never use second-hand smart devices. You never know if their security has already been compromised.
- Keep aware of security findings and updates about your smart devices. Finding there’s a security weakness and a security upgrade available to address it can spare a lot of future headaches.

Stickley on Security