Unfortunately, with that convenience comes brand new dangers.
Nearly every smart home machine is accessible from the internet.
This is meant to provide you, the homeowner, the convenience of monitoring and controlling your home.
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Unfortunately, it opens new doors into your home for hackers.
Can Your Smart Home Be Hacked?
This doesn’t mean you should avoid using smart home devices.
It just means you should purchase devices wisely, and follow a few simple rules to secure them.
When security bugs are discovered, programmers work quickly to patch them.
The patches are then pushed out automatically to customer devices.
Unfortunately, not all consumer smart home devices offerfirmwareupdates, so verify to check on this before buying.
Most companies “push” firmware updates automatically so you don’t have to do anything.
Most smart home devices let you change the default admin password on the mobile app or the cloud-based interface.
This is usually found in thesettingsarea.
The first thing you should do when you buy a smart home machine is change the default admin password.
Also, use a unique password that you haven’t used on any other equipment.
A good password is your primary line of defense against hackers.
Make your passwords complex and use special characters.
Learn rules behind crafting secure passwords.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use cloud-based interfaces to access your devices.
But it does mean you should ensure those cloud accounts are locked down with a strong password.
Unfortunately, a strong password isn’t enough if you share the password with potential hackers.
When you enable access for third-party services, try and limit that access as much as possible.
If a hacker can access your smartphone, they can access those smart home devices.
There are easy ways to protect yourself from this line of attack.
Better yet, buy ones that only communicate over Bluetooth and require a secure password for that direct access.
Limiting access to these devices through only one path will dramatically improve your smart home security.
