Security of smart home

Interconnected devices fare like humans during a pandemic. You can protect yourself as much as possible; someone comes unprotected and infects you.

More unprotected people = the risk of infection is more significant.

Nevertheless, you don't limit your contacts, since today you can no longer live without exchanging with others. Therefore, it applies - a mix of proper caution and prudence is in place, and we must be able to estimate the real possibility of risk. No fear of the pandemic, but no carelessness either.

Closed systems are a proven way to increase security. Everything is fine if we connect to a system that will not have access from the outside and will only work locally without an Internet connection. Most bus systems or conventional electrical installations work on this principle.

However, these systems are complicated to enforce nowadays, as it is practically impossible to cut off the environment from the surrounding world.

However, connecting to the outside world via the Internet is convenient or necessary for some functions. For example, push notifications, Email notifications from the alarm. However, one must be careful about which parts will be allowed to access the Internet and under what conditions.

The most secure device is of little use if its counterpart on the Internet can be easily attacked. Many large servers were attacked just because of personal data. It is therefore essential to save as little personal information as possible. 

Many operators do not need emails or personal data. You can register and use the service anonymously.

Another technique is using secure services, where the service cannot be assigned to a specific customer. This is how Apple's Siri works, for example.

In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the secure connection - the secure tunneling and encryption of the communication - peer to peer.

We cooperate exclusively with suppliers who use these communication methods and care about their client’s safety. The data are encrypted and unreadable by third parties.

The third part of security is between the device and the server - the network. Here everything starts with the router - Firewall. All IP addresses of individual devices in the network are lost behind the Firewall, and only the public IP address remains visible. At the same time, the router controls the flow of data packets. If unsolicited packets appear in the communication or do not belong to any of the devices in the network, they will hit the firewall.

For the router to be able to handle this task, it must itself be immune to attacks.

There is nothing easier than overcoming a simple password of your router. All hackers try to do this through web browsers every day. They know that many clients do not use sufficiently reliable passwords. An unprotected router in this way is a gateway for intruders. Here, intruders rely on the brute force method - automated servers try all possible password combinations until they find the right one.

Therefore, a correctly chosen password, which you will change regularly, will prevent such penetration into your ecosystem.

Another trick is UPnP - Universal Plug and Play - automatic assignment of ports for individual services and communications. It is recommended to make ports available only to those devices that absolutely need them. For all other devices, the UPnP function should remain blocked.

Keep your router up to date!

• Use only secure passwords.

• Use two-factor authentication.

• Change regular standard passwords.

• Keep software up to date.

• Take virus protection measures.

• Install software carefully.

• Pay attention to encryption.

• Create a separate WLAN network.

• Switch off WPS functionality.

• Keep backup of all your data in a safe place.

• Be careful about your traffic through the router.