Some days I feel pretty darn old, though I’d be lying if I said I actually was. But what I am, is old enough to remember the days when most homes had just one computer (if you were lucky). I’m old enough to remember the computer making the funky dialing tone when it would establish the internet connection through the dial-up modem. I remember how if you wanted to make a phone call, you needed to disconnect from the internet. That is a far cry from today’s world where our TV, fridge, and coffee pot can all talk to each other.
A lot has changed in 20 years. We have become enamored with the concept of a ‘smart environment,’ but more technically described as ‘The Internet of Things’ (IoT). The IoT is basically a giant network of connected endpoints. These endpoints can be people or devices, and it ultimately creates a structured relationship between people-to-people, people-to-things, and things to things. On a broad scale, this paves the way for ‘smart cities’ to slowly become reality, but on a smaller and more personal scale, it has given us a ‘smarter’ and more efficient home. To the average person this is a great thing. Now when I wake up in the morning, I can tell Alexa to start my cup of coffee. Or when I leave work, I can set my oven from my phone to start pre-heating. If you are thinking there is a ‘but’ coming, you are 100% correct.
Introducing all of these new endpoints into our home and office networks has created a variety of vulnerabilities, particularly with those devices that are wireless. Attackers now have a many more potential avenues through which they can penetrate into your network. The good news is that there are some basic steps you can follow to improve the security of your smart home/office. In the IT world, we call this device hardening. A good visual representation would be to picture a defending army fortifying the weak points of their castle in preparation of an attack. One missed weak point, and the invaders may get in. We can do the same thing with our smart devices. Here are some recommendations:
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Brad graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2014 with Bachelor’s Degrees in Accounting and Management Information Systems. He joined YHB that same year and has since split his time between both the Bank team and the Risk Advisory Services team completing external and internal financial audits, SOX consulting services, and IT related audit and consulting services. Brad became a Certified Information Systems Auditor in early 2019.