As technology advances, our homes are becoming increasingly smarter, with a whole host of electronic devices connected to the network and able to make our lives easier, even helping us with household chores. However, we must be careful, because the risk of being hit by yet another hacker attack is always around the corner. Cybercriminals, in fact, are capable of targeting even the technological tools we use at home, not just computers and cell phones.
The Netgear and Bitdefender alarm
A report by two IT and security companies has raised concerns Netgear And Bitdefender. Both focus on an important aspect: while smartphone and operating system manufacturers periodically churn out updates to make cell phones increasingly more secure, little or nothing is done for the IoT devicesthat is, those household objects connected to the Internet. Criminals know this, and in fact it is precisely towards those objects that they direct many of their attacks, certain of finding vulnerabilities.
The result of a study based on 50 million devices protected by Netgear has shown that on average 10 cyber attacks on an IoT device every 24 hours. Considering that in a smart home there can be up to 21 devices connected to the network, including video cameras, baby monitors, games, smart TVs and more, it is possible to understand the complexity of the problem.
The most vulnerable IoT
The object most exposed to risks is the smart tv. According to the Netgear and Bitdefender report, we are talking about 34% of vulnerabilities identified by hackers. Next in line are smart plugs, with 18% of vulnerabilities, DVRs, with 13%, routers, 12%, and set-top boxes, with 5%. Since a smart TV is not replaced as quickly as a smartphone, it is normal that over the years they run out of updates and new vulnerabilities are created. vulnerability. The most common “flaws” are buffer overflow (28.25%) and denial of service (27.20%). It doesn’t take much, and cyber-criminals gain full control of the device.
The danger is very high.
Through devices equipped with a microphone and/or video camera, criminals can obtain videos of us, or recordings, with serious damage to our privacy. The hope, therefore, is that in the future greater attention will be given to the dangers that may be hidden behind these devices, which have now become objects of daily use.