How to protect your smart home devices from hackers: smart speakers, robotic vacuums, video doorbells – all are vulnerable
- Billions of new smart home devices have been sold in recent years, such as the Amazon Echo smart speaker, Ring video doorbell and smart TVs
- Any new device you add to your home network adds another potential security hole, says one expert. Here are tips to stop that happening
So your holiday gift was a new smart-home device – maybe it was an Amazon Echo or Google Home smart speaker, iRobot’s Roomba to clean your floors, the Ring doorbell, or a smart TV for voice-command video.
Maybe you’re thrilled with your gift, or maybe you’re a bit wary, given recent reports of cyberhacking of some devices. Internet-oriented devices can make life simpler through voice-activated commands and remote operation, but they also can allow access to cyberhackers looking to steal your personal information.
“Everything is hackable. If you can access it, others can access it,” says Yair Levy, director of the Centre for E-learning Security Research at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, in the US state of Florida. “Any new device you add, you add another [security] hole.”
Still, billions of smart-home devices have been sold.
“Some people are saying, ‘I don’t care,’” says Levy, who teaches his students about the hacking dangers of smart-home devices.