Securing the internet of things

The internet of things is how all devices are connected through the internet and how they communicate with each other. We now have devices in your home which not only talk to each other but now communicate with cloud services sometimes monitored by someone for your protection. However with all this connectivity between devices there is a possibility of any device on your home network be open to a virus attack. These wireless devices are becoming more prominent in homes so we are more dependent on all these devices to complete daily task such as email, banking and other personal information. In my opinion no one will protect your information better than you so we have to invest in 3rd party devices to protect our home network. 

I often recommend installing and updating antivirus protection which will protect the an end user device. what about your other devices ? Your wireless lights, thermostat and more importantly your cameras all these devices on your network can be hacked and often do not have antivirus protection.

So what can you do to protect your home devices? First your router many of our home routers come with a username and password provided by the company. We must change the password, the password should be something you can remember but it should be difficult to break. Always use a combination of capitals, number and symbols. When you purchase a device to connect to your network it should always come with the ability to assign a password to the device, if the device does not offer the ability to assign a password to the device I would pass on the purchase. 

Lastly, you can invest in hardware which monitors all activity on your network. The devices will alert you when an attack was attempted and halted which I would highly recommend.

I hope this post was helpful as always please leave a comment

Mark Carbajal