As I’ve talked about before in a previous blog ‘Hacking – good or bad?’ the term ‘hack’ could be a good or a bad thing, depending on who is doing it and what they are doing. With the advancement of the Internet Of Things, hacking has become more prevalent and now a multi-billion pound industry for both ‘black-hat’ hackers/crackers and ‘White-hat’ hackers helping to improve security and protect against crackers.
MacWorld in their article ‘How to Hack a Home through the Internet of Things’ says that your plugged-in electronic devices switch on or off remotely, “can be misused to break into your home network, to capture unsecured data, plant malicious programs and steal account credentials to any of your accounts, if they are not properly protected.”
There are a number of things someone with a few tools and hacking skills can do to attack your default access point credentials. Alexandra Gheorghe, Security Specialist says
“If attackers get hold of your Wi-Fi network, they can see what other devices are connected to your network and may try to control them, too. They can also find a way to install spyware or key-loggers on your computers to grab the credentials of your online accounts… and then, havoc is bound to happen.”
There are a few simple things you can do to help at least stop the soft-hackers:
– Reading the privacy policies before choosing which a smart device to buy
– Change the default password when you set up the device
– Set up 2 step authentication for your main accounts such as Google, Apple, Yahoo accounts
– Don’t reuse the same password in more than one place
– Put a lock code on your mobile device
– Don’t check your sensitive accounts such as bank accounts over public wifi connections
– Turn your phone off at night
– Only buy ‘smart’ devices from trusted brands and trusted platforms.
– Keep product software and firmware up-to-date
– If you don’t need a camera active (such as on your laptop at work), tape over it
Cars and homes are increasingly connected to smartphones, laptops and the internet (seemingly there will be no-where in life you will not be barraged by advertising messages!) they are collecting all your data on where you are, what you’re doing, seeing, maybe even feeling or thinking.
“All of that data can be tapped, packaged, and monetized.”
Scarier than having your car try and sell you products, is the fact that white-hat hackers have proven they can also be taken over whilst driving at 70 mph as Andy Greenburg discovers when Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway – with him in it!
Watch the video and read more at: https://www.webigence.com/blog/hacking-your-life-using-iot