Smart homes are increasingly becoming hackable homes, according to consumer research.
The report by consumer rights organization Which? paints a grim picture for people who have equipped their residences with gadgets, many from trusted tech names.
As with pretty much everything in IT, if you connect a device to the internet, ensuring it’s patched and has a decent password is the very least owners can do. Even then, there are no guarantees that this is secure.
Unsurprisingly, the Which? team found that out-of-support devices were relatively straightforward for hackers to compromise. The example of an early Amazon Echo smart speaker was given where researchers were able to take control without the user being aware.
Other devices, such as smartphones and routers, were also exploited. The Which? team were able to infect a Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone with malware disguised as a delivery text. Siphoning of user data was then possible.
However, in these cases the devices were out of support and “the attack would have been better blocked or detected by a device that was still receiving security updates,” Which? noted.
Continue Reading: https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/01/which_smart_tech_advice/