The dream of creating a completely smart home is coming closer to reality every day. The benefit of smart technology is clear: day-to-day assistance, voice activation convenience, and (let’s be honest) the opportunity to impress your friends and family with the newest tech.
Without preparation, smart home devices may pose as a cyber-security risk, leaving your personal and financial information vulnerable to hackers.
Luckily, there are simple measures you can take to have your smart home and live in it too.
Are Smart Home Devices Secure?
Not all smart home devices are created equal. Some are impenetrable and some can have a lot of vulnerabilities.
These vulnerabilities can exist in the method your device uses to connect with your phone and other devices in your home. If these connections aren’t secure, then hackers can connect to your device.
What’s the harm in that, you ask?
Your device is connected to your Wi-Fi which you use to send personal and financial information on the Internet. By connecting to your Wi-Fi, hackers have all of your valuable information and can do whatever they please with it.
Don’t worry – there are things you can do to protect your home! Read more below.
Worried about security? You might be surprised about how insecure your deadbolt can be.
How to Secure Your Smart Home Devices
- Secure your Wi-Fi – get a more secure router if the one sent by your provider isn’t secure enough.
- Create a new Wi-Fi network exclusively for your smart home devices – don’t connect to this with your phone, computers, or anything you use to send sensitive information over the internet.
- Regularly update your device – this is usually possible through the app you use to control the device. Most devices don’t automatically update so this is crucial to get the most recent security fixes.
- Only use smart home devices that have built-in security measures – devices like Shepherd Lock use encryption, 2-step verification, or other tactics to block unwanted users.
We take your digital security seriously at Shepherd Lock.
Each virtual key is encrypted for use only on one specific device. Shepherd Lock has the added security of automatically updating the app you use to control the device.