Before you get to know if connected smart devices can be hacked, let me take a tour on the concept of IoT (Internet of Things)
According to Wikipedia, the concept of the Internet of Things was invented by by Peter T. Lewis in September 1985 in a speech he delivered at a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) supported session at the Congressional Black Caucus 15th Legislative Weekend Conference.
However, the concept of the Internet of things became popular in 1999, through the Auto-ID Center at MIT and related market-analysis publications.
Today, it has become of the trends to look watch out in the technology industry.
With series of smart devices getting connected, generating quantum of data from different geographics, online security experts say the hacking possibilities are not far fetched.
It has become evident that cybercriminals actually hack into these connected devices or cause physical damage, to certain types of inherently insecure connected devices.
Billions of smart devices are connected at the moment and more to be connected in the future. The more connected these smart devices are, the more vulnerable they become.
Earlier, Information technology research firm Garner predicts there will be 26 billion individual Internet of Things objects in the world by the year 2020.
Sadly, there quite a lot of past lessons which the Internet of Things have failed to learn from. This may not be too rampant in developing countries like Nigeria, for us, IoT is a new trend. Thus, most of the security vulnerabilities are exposed to the developed nations where we have almost everything connected.
IoT Vulnerability Studies
According to a study carried out by Hewlett Packard (HP), about three-quarters of all Internet of Things devices are susceptible to getting hacked or compromised.
The study investigated 10 common smart devices, including thermostats, smart TVs and webcams. “Each device had approximately 25 vulnerabilities, the study claimed”
For instance, connected printers, video conferencing systems, connected printers etc are all easy IoT-connected targets that are susceptible to being hacked by cybercriminals.
They mostly do this by psnoop on the targeted organisation by listening into calls or using the insecure systems to reach other parts of the network and make off with private information.
Lack of Cybersecurity Protocols
It doesn’t take up to 5 minutes to hack into an internet-connected devices that lacks the most basic cybersecurity protocols. The absence of these protocols only paves the way for cyberattackers hack data, spy on confidential internal activities, sometimes causing a physical damage.
“Late last year, we were hearing a lot about Internet of Things, and a bit about IoT security, but had not seen anything that focused on the complete picture of IoT security,” a statement from HP read.
“So, we decided to start the OWASP [Open Web Application Security Project] Internet of Things Top 10 Project, which aims to educate on the main facets of Internet of Things security that people should be concerned with.”
IoT Risks Security
Researchers warned that Internet of Things including IP connected security systems, connected climate control and energy meters, smart video conferencing systems, connected printers, VoIP phones, smart fridges, and even smart lightbulbs — pose an inherent risk to the security of organisations which deploy them.
Matthew Prince, the cofounder and CEO of Cloudflare, said anyone hooking up a poorly secured IP device to the internet can expect to see that gizmo hacked within a week, if not much sooner.
Avoiding Vulnerabilities
There are some level of measures that could be applied to avoid the vulnerability of connected devices.
Researchers say, there are basic security in place in modern devices that screen out the most obvious attacks. Getting phished, if you will, is more of a problem where you are tricked in surrendering your password or username to a common service.
“If you plug in your webcam into your router or to your Wi-Fi, you’re relatively safe. I think the biggest security concern for folks at home would be if their router actually is old, it might have an easily guessed password that someone could gain control”.
Most modern devices don’t have that problem, but that certainly is a concern for older devices.
