Six Tips to prevent your smart home from hackers

                         By – Divyateja Kondeti, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SmartDEN, India’s first home automation provider

A major speculation which revolves around the smart home technology is regarding privacy and security within the vicinity pf one home. It is believed by many that some companies not only record our private conversations but also track our everyday routine and behaviour patterns. This can be very dangerous as we all know that in the world we live in currently, DATA IS KING. And data in the wrong hands can be detrimental to society and the economy.

But we are here to assure you that most smart home systems are a closed system which is owned entirely by you. With a centralized smart control system, you benefit from the complete protection of your personal data and valuable information.

Having said that many OTT players track our interests regarding the shows you watch or the music you listen, to generate the best recommendations on what you might like to watch or listen. Similarly, smart homes systems are trying to understand the usage patterns for making your lives easier, economical & ecological by recommending scheduled patterns for the lights or geysers. This can be very useful for you and for the environment by saving some energy.

Also, hacking into a smart product such as smart lock or light is highly impossible unless the manufacturers have poorly managed the hardware itself.

However, it is imperative to keep yourself and your loved ones safe always and here are a few things one can do to ensure that all their data is private and home secure.

• Wi-Fi Router access

• Smart home app access

• Secure Guest access

• Separate network

• Secure firewalls

• Using safe networks

Wi-Fi Router

Your Wi-Fi router should be secured safely. There are two ways to access Wi-Fi router:
– Connecting to a Wi-Fi network

• Get access directly to the router,

Always both the routes have to be kept very secure by a strong password and you shouldn’t use common passwords to avoid becoming a victim of dictionary attack (“A dictionary attack is attempt to guess passwords by using well-known words or phrases.”) Most used password is “Password” itself or your name, names of your pets, DOBs and similar to these.

Smart home app access

The smart home apps that control the devices has to be accessed securely and shouldn’t share the credentials or access to the app to anybody who is unknown, which can jeopardise the security of the home

Guest access

We all love having people around us and host guests at home. While sharing the smart home app access with the guests make sure to always securely share the access only through smart home app and keep all guests in a guest network of your home to ensure limited access can be given to the right guests.

Separate networks

While being excited to experience the joy of smart living, make sure to connect all the smart devices on a separate network in the home so they are always connected and if the home regular network is compromised smart home network is still up and running.

Secure Firewalls

When trying to access the home devices like switches, plugs from outside the home network, making sure of right firewalls are installed and only authorised users/devices can get into the smart home network will help in reducing the front door intruders.

Firewalls help in blocking most of the network unless authorised

Using safe networks

While accessing the smart home devices remotely, always make sure of connecting through a safe network instead of publicly used Wi-Fi networks. Public networks are highly unsecure for the devices and allows opportunities for hackers to hack either your device or smart home app.