Yahoo Finance The many ways 'smart' gizmos can harm you
It sounds so enticing: Hook up your lights, thermostat, refrigerator and garage door to the Internet, and control it all from anywhere, via your smartphone. Or better yet, let the “smart home” run itself based on your habits and preferences.
Technology promises many remarkable things, and companies ranging from Google (GOOGL), Apple (AAPL) and Samsung to a host of richly funded startups now hope to cash in on the next big thing in computing: the “Internet of things,” which begins in your home and is centered on your wireless router. But there are risks that many consumers, wowed by the latest “smart” gizmos, may fail to recognize. “All of these devices are basically little computers, and like all computers, they’re hackable,” Marc Goodman, author of the bestseller Future Crimes, tells me in the video above. “We see all of these devices being attacked by criminals one way or another.”
The smart home revolution is fully underway, with gizmo makers selling locks, lighting kits, security systems, remote cameras, thermostats, fitness trackers and dozens of other devices that connect to the Internet. Therein lies the problem: In the rush to market, many manufacturers are overlooking security. While most devices can be password protected, many default to no password, the setting a lot of consumers stick with. The Department of Homeland Security—which has been hacked itself—has even warned that foreign enemies could damage the U.S. electrical grid by hacking home devices that connect to it.
Goodman has studied dozens of ways hackers commit crimes, and his list of worries is so long you might be tempted to just turn off the Internet altogether. Hackers can learn the codes to smart locks meant to replace metal keys on your front and back door. They can peer through remote cameras into bedrooms and listen in on cars connected to the Internet.
“In the old days we used to think about crime being a local phenomenon,” he says. “The internet broke policing. Now the criminal can be anywhere in the world and the police still have to follow nation-state borders.”
Some hackers are little more than a nuisance, seeking to get your email address so they can send spam. Others are more nefarious. A California 20-year-old was sentenced to 18 months in jail last year for taking naked pictures of several young women—including Cassidy Wolf, Miss Teen USA 2013—by seizing control of the cameras on their laptops. He used hacking software available for $40, which authorities say may have been used by numerous hackers to crack into half a million computers worldwide. Yahoo Finance has reported previously on hackers taking control of cameras used as baby monitors and even swiveling the cameras remotely to scan a child’s room.
Some hackers target bank accounts or personal information that can lead to identity theft. And in some cases, hackers look for pathways to bigger fish. The huge data breach at Target (TGT) in 2013—which compromised 110 million customer accounts—began with a malware attack on the email account of a Pittsburgh refrigeration firm, which did work for Target and inadvertently led hackers into the retailer’s network.
The good news is, you don’t have to turn off the Internet. Instead, do all the basic things to protect your smart home (or smart whatever), such as using complex passwords. Then go a few steps further. Goodman suggests a six-step security process that includes some measures ordinary computer users probably wouldn’t think of. Log onto your personal devices as a user rather than an administrator, for instance, to limit access should somebody get into your account; turn off wi-fi connections while you’re asleep, which can reduce your exposure to hackers by one-third. And always remember that as your home gets smarter, the bad guys do, too.
Rick Newman’s latest book is Liberty for All: A Manifesto for Reclaiming Financial and Political Freedom. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.
