Technology of Business reporter
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Do you use a webcam to check on Tiddles the cat or Bonzo the dog while you're at work?
If so, you could be unwittingly turning your internet-connected "smart" home into a weapon of web destruction.
That's the unsettling conclusion to be drawn from the recent web attacks that made use of a botnet army of compromised connected devices, from webcams to printers, to knock out a number of popular websites.
The smart home, it seems, is pretty dumb when it comes to security.
Wi-fi routers, digital video recorders, controllable lighting, security cameras - all these devices offer a potentially easy way in to your network and then the wider internet.
As the Internet Society warned last year: "The interconnected nature of IoT [internet of things] devices means that every poorly secured device that is connected online potentially affects the security and resilience of the internet globally."
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Yes, checking on Frou-Frou, your Miniature Schnauzer, via a poorly secured webcam could help break the internet. Forget Kim Kardashian.
In the good old days, hackers could launch a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack - overloading computer servers with millions of pointless requests for information, thereby knocking them out - using personal computers infected with malware.
Nowadays, they also have the IoT to play with - the increasingly diverse array of web-connected devices, from industrial sensors to clever fridges, thermostats to baby monitors.
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Gartner forecasts there will be 21 billion connected devices globally by 2020
Research consultancy Gartner forecasts that there will be nearly 21 billion connected things in use worldwide by 2020, up from about seven billion now.
So the hackers are moving away from better-policed corporations and governments to easier targets - and they don't come easier than the IoT-connected smart home.
So what should we be doing to protect ourselves?
Building defences
One quick and easy thing we can all do is change default passwords as soon as we buy an IoT gadget.
"The first rule of security is 'do not use default accounts or passwords'. They are posted on the internet, so the bad guys don't have to scan for credentials of assets to compromise," says Gary Hayslip, IoT specialist and chief information security officer for the City of San Diego.
Simple tools such as Bullguard's IoT Scanner software can also help spot weaknesses.
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Who might really be controlling your connected home devices?
The scanner detects any devices on a smart home network that are publicly exposed using the vulnerability service Shodan, the Google for finding unprotected computers and webcams.
If the scan identifies any exposed devices specified by the vendor, then you should immediately change log-ins and passwords. BullGuard has also published an IoT manual that gives a checklist on what to check and how.
Interestingly, the company recently acquired Israeli start-up Dojo-labs and will soon announce a smart network security device that plugs in to a wi-fi router to protect all connected devices on a home network.
Read more: Could your 'smart' home be a weapon of web destruction?
Related article: Smart Locks to manage Access and Biometric systems
Click Here to learn where you can get professionals who can install a hack proof home security system
