Hackers prove how easy it is to invade smart homes - but there's a silver lining
BI Intelligence
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Smart homes are the future, but hackers have showed there is a glaring danger in our increasingly connected lives.
The MIT Media Lab recently hosted a two-day hackathon in which it invited 153 hackers to try to find and exploit weaknesses in more than 20 smart home devices.
On day one, the hackers tried to control the devices through software vulnerabilities, and they succeeded to almost frightening levels. The hackers took control of 25% of the devices in less than three hours, and they also discovered more than a dozen weaknesses that had previously been unreported.
On day two, MIT invited the hackers to try to break into the Dojo, one of the first smart home device security solutions to hit the market. The same devices from day one were set up on a network protected by the Dojo, which monitors traffic on Wi-Fi networks and blocks any suspicious activity that would suggest an attempted security breach.
The news here was more encouraging, as the hackers could not break into the Dojo device nor the smart home devices connected to it. This clearly demonstrated the value of securing networks to prevent hacks into IoT devices.
The key difference between the secure and the vulnerable devices is in how they were designed, Dojo Labs CEO Yossi Atlas told BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. Developers who created the secure devices had done so with security in mind from early in the design stage and made sure to construct secure connections to mobile apps and the cloud.
Hacks of this type help draw media attention to the dangers involved with vulnerable IoT devices, but there are more ways that hackers can use these vulnerabilities in the real world. Hackers could potentially crash a compromised car, but they are more likely to exploit IoT devices to gain entry to corporate and government networks and databases.
Jonathan Camhi of BI Intelligence has compiled a detailed report on IoT Security that examines how vulnerable IoT devices will create new opportunities for different types of hackers. It also forecasts the market for solutions that can help secure IoT devices, and explains how different security measures can be used to protect these devices against hackers.
BI Intelligence
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
- Research has repeatedly shown that many IoT device manufacturers and service providers are failing to implement common security measures in their products.
- Hackers could exploit these new devices to conduct data breaches, corporate or government espionage, and damage critical infrastructure like electrical grids.
- Investment in securing IoT devices will increase five-fold over the next five years as adoption of these devices picks up.
- Traditional IT security practices like network monitoring and segmentation will become even more critical as businesses and governments deploy IoT devices.
In full, the report:
- Explains why IoT devices often lack basic security measures like properly encrypting communications.
- Forecasts the market for solutions that help secure IoT devices against attacks.
- Examines how different types of hackers could exploit IoT devices for financial gain, media attention, or to further a geopolitical cause.
- Explains how organizations can secure IoT devices at both the device and network level.
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of IoT security.