Make Your Smart Home Hack Proof with these Cybersecurity Tips

Yes, like all other devices around you, your Smart Home devices can be hacked too. You must be thinking how that is even possible. 

Well, hackers have their way of finding their way around something. And nothing better than a Smart Home device that can allow a hacker to enter your home and quietly collect all your helpful information. This sensitive information can include your personally identifiable information, bank details, account details, and more. 

Hackers can easily sneak into your Smart Home devices and find their way around the information which is most beneficial to them. So, instead of just protecting your phone or computer, you also need to protect other devices in your home at the same time. An inexpensive tool to ensure that your smart home devices remain safe is to use a VPN. You can always get a VPN that can work on multiple devices for ultimate protection.

According to Statista’s Digital Market Outlook, the number of Smart Home devices in the United States will reach up to 77.1 million by the year 2025. This clearly shows that a significant upsurge will be seen in the later years in the purchase of Smart Homes products.

And we know that with more Smart Homes, there will also be an increase in these devices getting hacked. This is how technology has been. Like with every perk, there is a con, similarly with every innovation, hackers come up with an innovative way to hack the device.

Why is it important to keep your Smart Home hackproof?

Well, it is significant to keep your Smart Home hackproof because it is an easy way for hackers and spies to get into your house and collect your details without physically trespassing into your house. This way, they can keep track of what you own, what you do, where you go, etc.

Hackers can hack your surveillance cameras, computers, door locks, thermostats, and even your baby monitors. There have been many cases reported in the United States in which baby monitors were actually hacked. 

Some Smart Home devices are more vulnerable than the rest. These include computers being used for outdoor security, wireless doorbells, security cameras, door openers, etc. Many devices are also not likely to be attacked at all, like your microwave or refrigerator. 

While the Internet of Things (IoT) is meant to make our lives easier each day, they also make it easier for hackers to enter systems and technology to breach our privacy. And, everything has been made super easy for them. They can access anything remotely and hack into anything without physically being around it. Sounds scary.

Quick tips to make your Smart Home safe

To ensure complete privacy and anyone entering your Smart Home devices, we have some quick tips for you:

1. Update your software: 

Well, the idea of this might sound irrelevant to you, but it certainly has its importance. Outdated operating systems and applications become extremely vulnerable to hacks, and that is the right moment for hackers to enter your device and do their deed.

To prevent that, you need to keep all your devices completely up-to-date. Every time there is an update request, click yes without ignoring it. The time the update will take is only beneficial for your future.

Update all your laptops, phones, computers, etc., to keep you protected from any data breaches.

2. Manage your passwords:

The next step you need to take for this is protecting your Smart devices with smart passwords. Most Smart devices are connected to your device, like your smartphone. 

But, every Smart device requires a setup and login. When you set up each smart device through your phone, use a strong password for each one of them. Using a similar password for all or using a password as easy as your birthdate will only invite hackers to your device. 

To avoid weak passwords, you need to use a separate password for all your smart devices. In case you’re afraid to forget them, you can always save all the credentials up in a password manager. Some of the best password managers in the world are Dashlane and 1Password.

3. Use a separate email:

When in doubt of cyberattacks, use separate emails for most accounts. When setting up Smart Home devices, use a different email address for them than your personal email. 

This would ensure that if your email id ever gets hacked, your Smart Home devices would remain safe and vice versa. If your Smart Home devices ever get breached, your email id and accounts connected to it would remain completely secure.

4. Invest in a secure router:

When you’re taking your privacy and security into concern, you should invest in a secure router. A secure router would work as a gateway between the internet and all your devices connected to it.

Companies and manufacturers acknowledged this concern before we did and started manufacturing a stream of secure routers for people concerned about their security. These routers also secure our devices from all kinds of malware and viruses. 

If you think this would be a costly option for you, you can always set up a VPN on your router. A VPN will not only keep all the devices connected to your router completely encrypted and secure but will also keep you unidentified over the internet. You can select a reliable VPN for this.

5. Avoid public wifi:

One last thing you need to ensure using our guide is to avoid public wifi networks. Now, you must be thinking about how public wifi relates to your Smart home devices. 

Well, as we mentioned above, you set up many Smart Home devices on your smartphone to control them. When you connect to public wifi, you become vulnerable to cyberattacks. Hackers and spies can quickly enter your phone through it and monitor your device activity while also hacking into your Smart Home devices. 

For this, you need to avoid connecting to public wifi networks. If you can’t do that, then you should use a VPN while connecting to these networks to keep all your data and information safe from being breached at any cost.

Conclusion:

Hacking into Smart Home devices is the latest cyber trend for hackers. You need to make sure that your Smart Home devices aren’t the next ones getting hacked. You can always use a VPN to stay completely safe.