Secure your smart home devices

Doesn’t that bother you that you have a smart house but these remotely controlled devices or smart devices are always “listening” to you or “watching” you? A survey was conducted back in 2017 where they asked customers if they fully trust their smart home devices and the results suggest that only 9 percent of the customers who were using smart home devices fully trust their smart devices with their secrecy and security. The surprising thing was despite this vote of no confidence, not many consumers of the smart home devices were willing to put these devices off to ensure that their lives are secure.

There is no doubt that technology has made our lives easier and the smart home devices surely have a positive impact on the standard of living but there is also a factor of security that you should be concerned about in this age of cyber-criminals. There are many incidents reported where these devices were involved in some strange activities such as an Alexa enabled smart device recorded a private conversation of a couple and sent it to someone else. There also were some incidents in which these devices were heard making strange noises or laughter which is enough to scare you or shake your confidence.

Here are some of the steps that you should follow to protect your smart home devices and to make sure that your smart home devices are secure.

1.Create your own settings and wake words

The first thing that you should do is to change the default settings of the smart home devices and create your own wake words and controls. It is pretty basic that cyber criminals are always ready to take advantage of your sloppiness whenever and wherever they find a loophole in your security system. So it is suggested that do not make it easy for someone to breach through your security wall just by knowing the simple security precautions and commands that are put in place by default by the manufacturer. Always change the default settings and control commands to your own wake words and settings so there is no chance for anyone to take advantage of the situation.

2.Do not keep your devices on “Always On”

It has been recently proved by researchers that your voice assistance can be manipulated to follow commands that are not given by you such as opening the locks and doors, to do make an order without you being aware. The real world works on precautions as you simply close the doors when there is something private or an important discussion is taking place. Similarly, you also need to consider changing the status of your smart home devices by “Always on” to “sometimes off”. Do not forget to disable and turn off virtual assistant when you cannot risk someone listening to your talks or if there is a moment of privacy. It’s always better safe than sorry so do not forget to take necessary precautions for such sensitive situations.

3.A roll call for Smart home devices

Many consumers do not even know how many smart home devices they have which are always on and always online in their own house. The shared devices such as virtual assistance and gaming consoles which are always connected to smart home devices might not be a good practice for your safety. It is important that you recognize your devices which are connected to your network and are always online. Keep a check on the security updates and do not forget to update the firewalls and make sure that there are up to date software installed for your devices. It won’t take much time to ensure that your smart home devices are safe and secure to the best available specifications.

4.Be wise with your Wi-Fi network

Most of the time your smart home devices are connected to your home network and with all the security credentials and users data, be wise with your Wi-Fi network and keep it secure. If a hacker manages to hack your home network then he can most probably monitor your smart home devices and even change the settings and use the data for criminal activities so it is always suggested to keep your Wi-Fi secured, change the default settings and monitor the devices that are connected to your home network and Wi-Fi. Increase the number of firewalls, adjust settings like the Network Id’s and add some encryption levels.

You can also use a separate Wi-Fi network for your different smart home devices if you are willing to go an extra mile to ensure the security and protection of your devices and network.