Everything in our home is increasingly connected to the internet. Smart devices such as your smart TV, thermostat or doorbell make your daily life a lot easier. But also more vulnerable, because criminals can digitally break into your home via these devices. Cyber security expert Chris van ‘t Hof explains how that works and how you can protect yourself against it.
Internet crime
Regularly updating your smart devices not only ensures that the device continues to work properly, but also protects against internet crime. In corona times, cyber criminals are making more use of vulnerabilities in routers and IoT devices for consumers to gain access to the corporate network.
What is the danger if a criminal hacks your smart device?
“It depends on the device. With smart doorbells and webcams, they can take a peek into your private life. Smart lights, thermostats and kettles can turn them on and off. Then you can ask yourself: is that bad? The biggest danger is that your router will be hacked, because that is actually your digital front door. Hackers can get into other devices through the router. Then you really are the jack, because then they can control your entire smart home. Most people buy an internet plan, plug in the router and never look at it again. There is still a lot to gain, because you just have to make sure that all your smart devices are properly secured.”
And how do you do that?
“For both the router and all your other smart devices, it is important to look in the manual on how to set the settings correctly. on doejeupdates.nl you see what to look out for. A good router is automatically updated from the provider. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to get the manual and figure out how to turn on the automatic updates. That’s very important, because updates fix something that was broken. As soon as an update is available, malicious parties take a look: what will change as a result of the update? Then they go specifically looking for that. For example, they find a hundred thousand webcams that still run on an old software version. They can hack them all in one fell swoop. That’s why it’s so important to install those updates quickly because as soon as an update comes online, the race is on to seek out old systems to hack.
The second thing that matters is coming up with a strong password. Many devices come with a default password, and more than half of people don’t change it. If a hacker then has a manual of a device with a default password, he will search for other devices online and try out that password. You can then enter many devices. So you really have to come up with a strong and long password yourself. Preferably a whole sentence, then you are safe.” If you can’t figure it out on your own, ask someone close to you for help.
What will the hacker gain if he breaks into your smart device?
“There can be different motives. Some hackers just do it for fun. Other hackers will deliberately look for something spicy, annoying or embarrassing, in order to blackmail you with it. Another possibility is that they want to use your devices to hack others. For example, if a hacker manages to hack ten thousand webcams, he can fire them all at one internet address. Then that website goes down, because all those webcams log on to it. Then you have actually become part of a criminal network that destroys sites. A final motive, and then it gets really annoying, is that they look for one device to enter your home network, and then break all your devices or extract interesting information from them.”
What should you do if you notice that a smart device in your home has been hacked?
“A good hacker actually does it in a way that you don’t notice. Sometimes your device works a bit slower, but your first thought is often not that you have been hacked. Suppose you notice it anyway, then you should immediately change your password and make updates. That’s the good news: the solution is quite simple.”
Aren’t you just safest not using smart devices?
Nowadays you can’t avoid it: there is so much on offer that comes with a bluetooth or internet connection as standard. And in addition, it is also handy that all kinds of things happen automatically, that development is almost impossible to stop.
All smart devices are simply vulnerable, but if you just do your updates and set good passwords, there’s little to worry about. So my advice is really: just take those few minutes. Grab that manual, set a few things and you’ll feel a lot safer.”
For more tips and information, visit the website: www.veiliginternetten.nl/doejeupdates
In collaboration with the national government