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Smart homes offer convenience in terms of home automation, security, resource efficiency and commerce: from the comfort of your couch, you can control your lights and aircon, control your home security and order next week\u2019s groceries.<\/p>\n
Central to this are two important elements: internet-enabled devices \u2013 including appliances and smart devices \u2013 and intelligent personal assistants (IPAs). An IPA is a virtual assistant that usually works using voice commands; popular examples are Apple\u2019s Siri, for its devices, and Amazon\u2019s Alexa, which is part of the company\u2019s Echo home automation system.<\/p>\n
But any point at which your smart home system connects to the outside world \u2013 be it via an app on your smartphone, your WiFi or internet-enabled smart appliances \u2013 it makes you vulnerable to cybercrime. If you can access the internet, anyone with nefarious intentions can access you. All of you.<\/p>\n
The risks you face include:<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t think you couldn\u2019t be vulnerable. Cyber security firm Kaspersky reported in 2020 that not only has cybercrime continued to proliferate, but it has also responded and adapted to the global COVID-19 pandemic. For example, new strategies such as reselling bank access and targeting of investment applications emerged, and existing trends such as ransomware and card skimming became more sophisticated.<\/p>\n
Kaspersky also predicted future trends to be aware of, including MageCarting (stealing payment card data from e-commerce platforms), transition currencies (using multiple cryptocurrencies to cover criminals\u2019 tracks while collecting ransoms), more cyber extortion with higher ransoms, using 0-day exploits (vulnerabilities not yet found by software developers), and fraud that demands Bitcoin payments.<\/p>\n
Your home insurance should therefore contain a strong cyber section, with covers for eventualities such as theft of funds, identity theft, data restoration, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and loss of reputation, cyber extortion, third-party liability, and data and privacy breach by a third party.<\/p>\n
Even if your data is compromised in a data breach, you need not be a victim. Here are four simple steps you can take to contain the risk:<\/p>\n
It’s a good idea to keep changing your password on a regular basis, but in the aftermath of a data breach, it’s especially important to change your passwords to something strong, secure, and unique. And you should have multiple \u201cpasswords,” not just one. Do not use the same password for all of your online accounts. In general a \u201cstrong\u201d password is at least 10 characters with a mixture of letters, numbers, and symbols but there is a move to passphrases of at least 12 characters. A password phrase is a character string that consists of mixed-case letters, numbers, and special characters including blanks. Password phrases have security advantages over passwords as they are long enough to withstand most hacking attempts and are unlikely to be written down because they are easy to remember. An example of a strong password phrase is \u201cI LOVE to read andlivesecurely!<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to changing your passwords, sign up for two-factor authentication (also known as \u201c2FA” or \u201ctwo-step verification”) wherever possible. This is an added layer of security for your account logins. With two-factor authentication, your online account will require you to enter an additional level of identification to access your account \u2013 such as a code texted to your phone. This means that even if hackers get your email and password, they can’t get into your account without that second factor of identity verification.<\/p>\n Should you suspect that your identity has been compromised, apply immediately for a free Protective Registration listing with Southern Africa Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS). This service alerts SAFPS members, which includes banks and credit providers, that your identity has been compromised and that additional care needs to be taken to confirm that they are transacting with the legitimate identity holder. Consumers wanting to apply for a Protective Registration can contact SAFPS on 011 867 2234 or visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.safps.org.za\/<\/strong>.<\/p>\n After a data breach, it’s essential to be vigilant and pay extra attention to your account activity \u2013 that includes your bank account and other financial accounts. Read your bank account statements and watch for suspicious transactions. Also, sign up for your free annual credit report to check your credit reports from each of the three credit reporting bureaus \u2013 or better yet, sign up for a proactive monitoring service such as those offered by the bureaus, which will send you an alert if there is any activity on your credit record.<\/p>\n However, prevention is always better than cure. So, what steps can you take to protect your home, your data, and your digital security? There are several, such as \u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 Creating a trusted ecosystem<\/strong><\/p>\n What this means is that all devices on your smart home network are recognised and trusted, and any other devices cannot access the network. Use strong passwords along with encryption of your devices, install virus protection on all your devices and always be wary.<\/p>\n IPAs come with default access and \u201cwake word\u201d settings; as a matter of course, you should change them. Where these are available, add additional layers of security such as PIN codes, voice recognition and fingerprint reading.<\/p>\n Also, only ever give completely trusted apps access to your IPA.<\/p>\n \u2026 \u2018Deafening\u2019 your IPA<\/strong><\/p>\n Essentially, smart devices and the IPAs used to control them are always listening for a command. That\u2019s what makes them so convenient \u2013 and also so vulnerable. A good, low-tech way to counter this is to switch off your IPA\u2019s microphone when not in use.<\/p>\n \u2026 Controlling banking access<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t link accounts to your IPA. Some home automation systems cannot recognise individual voices and will give bank details to anyone who asks \u2013 from criminals to your kids.<\/p>\n \u2026 Being careful in general<\/strong><\/p>\n There are lots of other simple actions you can take to secure your smart home.<\/p>\n For example, don\u2019t give strangers access to your smart devices, as social engineering is still the easiest way to hack you. Keep your smart home hub away from windows because you tip criminals off that you have one. Manage your online search and shopping histories; they can give away information about you.<\/p>\n Most importantly, speak to your broker about how best you can tailor your insurance cover for your smart home. It\u2019s more than clever or prudent \u2013 it\u2019s smart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Smart homes offer convenience in terms of home automation, security, resource efficiency and commerce: from the comfort of your couch, you can control your lights…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innov8ions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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