Protecting Your Home's Smart Devices

Our homes are becoming increasingly connected to the outside world through "smart" devices, which work together over your Wi-Fi network to make your home more comfortable, safe, and convenient. Common smart devices include thermostats, televisions, light bulbs, and surveillance systems. 

With all of this convenience comes a great deal of risk. Internet-connected smart devices can become a target for hackers, so it's important to configure them in a way that doesn't put your home — or your data — at risk. 

How to Secure Your Smart Devices

Tips for securing your smart devices:

• Secure your wireless network. Use a wireless router with a good security track record, change its default credentials, and use strong Wi-Fi passwords with the highest level of encryption.
• Enable automatic software updates. Log in to the device occasionally to make sure it has the latest firmware. 
• Change all default accounts and passwords. Don’t use the same username and password across all of your smart devices; make sure each device has a unique username and password. Use multi-factor authentication where available. See our password strength best practices 
• Do not log in to your smart devices from shared public computers (e.g., hotel business centers). This will prevent key logging of your usernames and passwords for those devices.
• Prevent unwanted physical access to your smart devices. Make sure people you don't know or trust can't tamper with your devices.

• Enable MFA if available.  

• Connect to the devices using HTTPS to encrypt the traffic.  

• Consider creating a separate Wi-Fi network for your smart devices. Attackers may breach a smart device as a way to attack the rest of your home network, including your computers and mobile devices.

ACA's Cybersecurity Resources and Best Practices Center

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For More Information

If you have any questions, please contact your regular ACA Aponix consultant or contact us below.

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