There’s nothing like the convenience of thinking something, saying something and seeing it done – “Alexa, dim the lights” or “Hey Google, turn on the air con”– but there is also the reasonable concern about whether other people can control your smart home too. Famously, a South Park episode did just that, adding all sorts of silly things to people’s shopping carts by simply asking Alexa to do their malevolent bidding.
So what if someone who knew what they were doing tried to get control of your smart devices? To prevent security breaches in your own home network, heed these essential steps to securing your smart home and all the devices within its ecosystem.
1. Update your Home Insurance
The first thing you’ll want to do is ensure that your actual devices are insured at a foundational level. This means making sure your smart home technologies are added to your home and contents insurance policy. Alongside protecting your tech investments, adding these devices may even see a drop in your policy premium as your insurance provider may factor in the installation of smart home security cameras as a deterrent for prospective burglars/trespassers.
2. Only Invest in Devices you Need
As much fun as buying every smart device under the sun and watching your home interconnect in all sorts of charming ways, they do each add another risk for security. A smart doorbell might be an easy way to see who’s at the door, but it’s also a video feed that a wiley hacker might be able to view too, or even use to unlock your smart locks. So, be sure to think twice about every smart home item you add to the list.
3. Research Security Risks
Not every smart home system is created equal. Some have a 4k touchscreen, while others have a backdoor for hackers to access. Once you’ve settled on the features and found the machine that you want, check its security specs online. The easiest way to check is to ask Google about the brand and see what it says. For example, the Washington Post made a list of smart doorbell brands that you should steer away from due to security risks.
4. Update, Update, Update
Hacking is always evolving, and new techniques must be found once old ones have been secured against. To combat this, manufacturers have to keep updating their devices with new firmware. As a user, your responsibility is to keep your machines up-to-date. Thankfully, this tends to be easy for smart devices. Just check that they have automatic updating enabled and leave it at that. That said, every brand and machine is a little different so make sure to check each device.
5. Replace Outdated Routers & Smart Hubs
Your router and smart home hubs tend to be the weakest link in your network chain. Or at least that’s true if they’re running on outdated hardware. In fact, if you have a Samsung tv from 2012 or 2013, it may be able to spy on you. Years after their release, the CIA and British intelligence released documents detailing a special “fake off” mode on certain Samsung tvs that allowed them to record conversations. So that’s certainly one reason to look into the security of the devices you’re using at home.
6. Secure Your Wi-Fi Network
Using a secure password for your home wifi is one thing, but if you want to really protect your computers and phones from smart home security risks, you’ll want to create separate wifi networks. Many routers can do this built in, but you can also connect a second router or a wifi extender to do this too. With the two networks, you can have your smart home devices on one, all interconnected but without access to your personal devices. This way, even if a hacker does get access to your network, they’ll be unable to do any more than flicker the lights.
7. Monitor Your Network
If you think someone has accessed your network, or you just want to know which devices are connected, you can check this. To do this you’ll need to access your router controls, either by visiting http://192.168.1.1/, or by using your provider’s app. Here you’ll be able to see everything currently on your network, though if you haven’t given your devices proper names, they may not be familiar to you so don’t disconnect devices willy-nilly.
8. Don’t Show off Your Brands
In the event that someone is looking for a vulnerable system to tap into, the first thing they’ll want to know is how your system runs. And when they see the logo on your smart doorbell or security cameras, they know what your system uses. For example, Samsung and Phillips logos mean that your system runs on the Zigbee communication protocols. So, to combat this, you can take off the stickers, paint over the logos or even add new stickers on top to throw cybercriminals off the trail.
9. Set up a Pi Hole
Put simply, a Pi Hole is a sinkhole to protect your network. Ads, trackers, and other nefarious cyber critters fall into it while you use your devices as normal. It’s made using a Raspberry Pi, so it’s not a quick set up or solution, but it is a valuable long term security measure (not to mention you won’t have to watch ads on your devices anymore).
Conclusion
Despite all these security tips, you’ll be glad to know that cybercriminals prefer to target corporations and dense metro buildings rather than homes. So the likelihood of you being targeted tends to be lower than other crimes. That said, peace of mind and futureproofing is a worthy goal, so it’s worth doing the checks to get these tips on board early.
