A silent tech revolution is happening. It may even be taking place in your home. Your home may be filled with so-called smart devices, ordinary items that come with some extraordinary capabilities.
Various smart devices have been proliferating, from the lights in your garage to the TV in your living room, from the refrigerator in your kitchen to even the showerhead in your bathroom. Unfortunately, if they’re not properly secured, they could become security nightmares for your property and family.
Since these smart devices work by connecting to the internet, they provide an easy entry point for hackers. Once those Internet of Things (IoT) devices are breached, the hackers can find their way into your home network. Further compromising your security and putting your privacy at risk.
Knowing about those deficiencies is the first step toward protection. You can take steps to lock down those items and keep your family safe from the cyber-criminals who target these devices. Here are some timely tips for securing your smart devices.
Do Your Homework
Some manufacturers and devices have better privacy protections in place than others, so do your homework before you start shopping. Some companies help you secure your smart devices more than others. Researching the data protection policies of the various smart home ecosystems and using that as your guide is a good place to start, and it can help you keep your home and family safe.
Change the Default Passwords if You Can
From the smart refrigerator that can order groceries for your family to the smart camera that keeps watch on your porch, these devices often come with an embedded password. That default password is widely known and easily available online, and if you do not change it, you could be doing more harm than good.
Change those default passwords right away, switching to credentials that will be easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. It’s best to make this password unique, as that will provide further protection in the event of a data breach.
Add Voice Match to Smart Speakers and Other Voice-Activated Items
Those voice-activated smart speakers and related items are amazingly convenient, but they can also provide an easy entry point for hackers. Adding voice matching to the device and locking it down to your voice alone will help protect the device from misuse.
In many cases, you can add the voice match option to the device upon setup. In other cases, you will have to go into the settings and set it up later. Either way, adding this extra bit of security to the voice-activated devices you rely on is worth it to secure your smart devices.
Disable Features You Do Not Need
From appliances to electronics, smart devices come armed with a wide range of features, but not all of them are useful to you. If you want to lock down your smart devices and protect your home and family, start by disabling the features you do not need.
If you do not want your refrigerator ordering groceries, you can turn that unique but not always useful feature off. You can do the same with things like the room mapping that comes with certain robot vacuum cleaners.
When properly used, smart devices can make your life a lot easier, but if accessed by the wrong person, they can be dangerous. Securing your smart devices can give you the best of both worlds, so you can enjoy modern conveniences without the risk.