How smart is your home? These days, everything from lights and plugs to thermostats and house alarms comes with smart features that make your home more energy efficient, secure and give you greater control regardless of where you are in the world.
But in striving to make our home work better, are we inadvertently putting our security at risk? You might not think that your wifi connected light bulbs can do much damage, but recent events indicate otherwise.
The topic hit the headlines when it emerged that compromised smart TVs and streaming TV boxes – aka the dodgy box – were corralled into a giant zombie network of devices that achieved record-breaking cyberattacks.
The people who had their devices “recruited” for the botnet may never have suspected their involvement. But the potential damage is no less severe.
Even if that doesn’t concern you, the other risks might. Smart home devices can be a way for hackers to get inside your home network and quietly gather data that can be used for a more targeted phishing attack in the future. Imagine what your internet traffic could reveal about you, from the activity recorded by your smart home to your email and online searches.
