We secure our house with dead bolts, alarms, security locks, camera’s to prevent anyone from breaking in. And on the other hand, we leave the door wide open with all our equipment connected to the net. Today is it cool to be able to control everything with your smart phone: start the TiVo, control the temperature of your house, closing the blinds, start the coffee machine,… But no one thinks about the possible dangers of that. All these appliances connected to the internet can be hacked.
Now I hear you thinking: what can possibly go wrong with that?
Anything that is connected to the internet can be hacked. If a hacker gets control over your appliances, they possible can cause a power breakdown. They can monitor your habits to find out when you leave the house; they can tap into the security cameras. The webcam of your computer can be used to spy on you! The possible dangers are infinite
Can you imagine what would happen if someone takes over control of your car? This summer 2 hackers demonstrated that they could remotely control a Cherokee jeep by hacking in to the car computer. .
The problem is that people are too lazy to change the default password when they install new stuff. And if they do, they have no imagination in choosing a safe password.
The FBI gives some guidelines to reduce the possible risks:
- Isolate your Internet of Things device to their own separate network and don’t put them on the same network as your computer
- Update security patches
- Change the default passwords to a strong password, don’t use names of pets of children or any other common word.
- Beware when connecting medical device cause this concerns your health
- Disable the Plug and Play option on your router so devices are not automatically installed on any computer connecting to your network
- Put some tape over your webcam when you are not using your computer, to avoid anyone spying
But more important, manufacturers should be aware of the possible dangers and invest in protecting their equipment, to prevent these things from happening.
