Does the Internet of Things Make Your Home More Vulnerable?

You may have watched those shows on how to keep your home safe: you don’t leave ladders hanging out in your yard, you keep your doors and windows locked, you store cash and valuables in a hidden safe. But if you’ve also jumped into the Internet of Things world by adding Wi-Fi-connected appliances to your home, you may be doing the online equivalent of leaving your home’s back door wide open.

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The Danger of the Internet of Things

Household appliances — and even plant pots — can now connect to the Internet. Our phones, TVs, and security cameras connect to the Internet. That’s a lot of connectivity. It can also create a lot of problems. You can run a quick Internet search about the security of your Internet of Things devices. Common issues or vulnerabilities will appear — something thieves and hackers will want to take advantage of.

With our constantly changing technology, it might be too much for the Internet of Things to keep up with breaches. Dyn, the world’s biggest DNS provider, was attacked back in October 2016. The DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack was formed by a botnet of millions of Internet of Things devices. The goal? To get onto the pages of Dyn users and collapse several sites like Twitter, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, leaving them dark.

How to Protect Your Home

Feeling worried? You should be. Fortunately, you can do things to better protect yourself. Look into the manufacturer of the Internet of Things products you buy. There should be frequent security updates, bug fixes, and stellar support.

Further, change default usernames and passwords. It doesn’t take long, and it will significantly cut down on your vulnerability. Purchase a firewall device to help block any would-be attackers. It’s one more way to make your house too difficult to mess with. It is worth the bit of extra effort, don’t you think?