2019-09-01_TechLife

[ 098 ]

HOWMANYSMART

yourhouse?We’rebettingthere’sat leastone

• yourinternetrouter– butthereareprobablya
  fewothersaswell.Doyouowna smartTV,one
  thatconnectstotheinternetandcanwatch
  NetflixorYouTube?A gamingconsole?A
  digitalvideorecorder?A networkmediaplayer
  ornetworkattachedstoragedevice?A camera
  usedforsecurityorbabymonitoring?A voice
  assistant?Anyappliancewithinternet
  connectivity?Homeautomationswitches
  andcontrollers?
  Here’sthething:thesekindsofdevicesare
  awesome,andtheadditionalfunctionality
  offeredbyconnectingthemtothenetworkcan
  beamazing.Buttheydopresentsignificant
  securityrisks,especiallybecausethey’reoften
  designedtofavourconvenienceoversecurity.
  PCsandmobiles,followingyearsofexperience,
  tendtohaveadditionallayersofsecuritybuilt
  in,butmanysmartdevices(alsoknownas
  internetofthingsorIoTdevices)haveverylittle
  toprotectthem,andusersoftenforgetabout
  themasa vulnerability.
  Consequently,attacksonIoTdevicesare
  growingeveryyear.TheMiraibotnet– whichis
  stilla threat– verysuccessfullyattacked
  millionsofsmartdevices,allowinghackersto
  takecontrolofthemandusethemfordenialof
  serviceattacks.Similarly,theVPNFilter
  malwarelastyeartookcontrolofthousandsof
  unsecuredrouters,allowingthehackersto
  monitorandmodifyinternettraffic.

Obviouslymakingyourwirelessnetworkas

secureaspossibleis importantinanycase,butit

becomesespeciallysowhenyou’retalking

aboutsmartdevices.Often,yournetwork

securityis theonlythingbetweenyourdevices

anda hacker.

Thatmeans:

WPS(Wi-FiProtected Setup),

vulnerabilityin many routers.

guestnetwork with a different

password.Thismeansthat the password to

yourmainwireless network will not be

floating around on the computers and

mobiles of other people.

PASSWORDS,PASSWORDS,PASSWORDS

m

P

STAT

URING

SMART

DEVICE

S

ARTde ces ouhavein -FI

NE UR

kas

* DisablingW

whichis av

* eati a

* Makingsureyou’reusingWPA2or

WPA3security.

* Changingthepasswordtoa goodpassword

(a st r i ngofrandomnumbersandletters).

This is thebiggie.Unfortunately,toomany

people areinclinedtoleavethefactorydefault

passwordsontheirsmartdevices,makingthem

extremely vulnerable to attack. Andthosethat

You probably have

more smart devices

than you think.

Make sure your wireless network is secure. It may be your only defence.

[ HOME NETWORKING ]

Securing smart devices

KEEPING YOUR IOT DEVICES SAFE FROM HACKERS.

[NATHAN TAYLOR ]