by Amber Wolff
7 “Smart” Steps to secure and protect your Home Network
A refrigerator that tells you there was a power outage — and whether it lasted long enough to spoil your food. Doorbells show you who's at the door and allow you to communicate with them from across the country. Home medical devices that can collect data and transmit it directly to your doctor.
Present in countless applications, smart devices have revolutionized the way we live and work. Smart devices are a subset of a larger group of internet-connected products known as IoT (Internet of Things) devices. These devices can be controlled remotely, usually through a smartphone app or webpage, and send and receive data without human intervention.
In the 20 years since the term got wide usage, the number and scope of IoT devices have grown tremendously. According to Security Today, from 2018 through 2020, IoT devices jumped from 7 billion to 31 billion, with 127 new IoT devices coming online each second.
By 2020, IoT technology is expected to be present in the designs of 95% of new electronics products. And over the next five years, the number of connected devices is forecasted to climb to 41.6 billion and generate a mind-boggling 79.4 ZB of data (for reference, the entirety of the World Wide Web, as it existed in 2009, was estimated to be less than a half a ZB.)
Smart devices introduce conveniences unthinkable a decade ago. But unfortunately, they also bring a new set of risks that could endanger your privacy and your data, your other devices, and even other connected networks.
For starters, there's currently no standard for securing IoT devices — companies are free to put as much or as little security in their products as they want. Even when vulnerabilities are discovered, many devices are not updated because their cost is too low, or there is no way to update them. When are updates are available, they're never pushed out, or customers never hear about them. In all, IoT devices are open to wide exploitation.
However, there are several other risks related to the way people use these devices. Many users believe they don't have the time or expertise to secure their IoT devices adequately — and that, because they're not a large business or high-profile individual, they're unlikely to be targeted.
But work statistics since COVID-19 has changed all that. According to Global Workplace Analytics, 25-30% of the American workforce now works from home. That means cybercriminals increasingly see remote employees' home networks — especially poorly secured IoT devices that connect to them — as a back door to compromise corporate networks with lower chances of detection.
According to the mid-year update to the SonicWall 2021 Cyber Threat Report, cybercriminals have taken advantage of the increasingly distributed data landscapes. Not only have they increased the frequency of their attacks, but they've also expanded how they attack. As a result, ransomware attacks sharply rose to 304.6 million in 2020, up 62% over 2019. And the attacks increased to 226.3 million through May of 2021 — up 116% year-to-date over 2020.
While you can't necessarily avoid being targeted, you can significantly decrease your odds of compromise by taking these 7 “smart” steps for better cybersecurity:
The network of connections created by the Internet of Things creates opportunities and challenges for individuals and businesses. SonicWall encourages everyone to be smart about smart devices and assume the responsibility of maintaining the health of their home network. Cybersecurity is everyone’s business. By being diligent, we can ensure the security of our home networks and anywhere else our connections may take us.
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Amber Wolff
Amber Wolff