3 Ways to Protect Smart Devices from Criminal Exploits

When people think of home or business security, they are usually worried about protecting against a physical breaking in via a window or door and a burglar stealing valuables such as jewelry, cash, electronics, and equipment. However, in today’s IoT era, there are increasingly new ways people can break in to steal from us – by hacking into our Smart Devices. This article explains why these are vulnerable and 3 ways how we can protect them.

Smart Devices Provide Criminals a New Entry Point

Most of us leverage Smart Devices to simplify our lives: smart locks, security cameras, lights, thermostats, smart doorbells, and monitors. However, it often does not occur to us that the same devices that make our modern lives so much easier, also open a Pandora’s Box for a new age of criminal exploits. Unfortunately, Smart Devices are popular ports of entry for cybercriminals to conduct Digital break-ins to then steal our identities, customer data, financial information, bank accounts, credit cards, etc.

Once connected to the internet, Smart Devices become vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Hackers only need one loophole to break into a network. Smart Devices are particularly vulnerable to a “Zero-Day Exploit” attack, whereby hackers take advantage of a security vulnerability at the device level, to access the network it’s connected to. This is how cybercriminals can remotely “break-in” thru a smart device, get onto a network, locate “the goods” (typically valuable data), and then steal from people or organizations.

Additionally, in today’s connected world, the burglar hacking into a Smart Device may or may not be a person. Instead, it’s more likely to be an organized crime ring using a computer in a targeted attack or a bot conducting an automated broad-scale attack.

One famous example of a digital break-in via a Smart Device is the Casino Fish Tank attack. A North American Casino managed one of its fish tanks using an internet-connected Smart Thermostat to control water temperature, saline levels, and feedings. Unf

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