Smart Tech in the Home
Smart tech: it’s taken over our portable life with the influx of tablets and mobiles. But with the ‘smart home’ and the Internet of Things (IoT) looming on the horizon, how much can we actually rely on connected technology? More specifically, how secure is smart tech in the home going to be?
If elements of your home become connected to a network, can you feasibly guarantee your safety and security when hooked up to the Internet? Or does networking your home devices eventually make your entire house as vulnerable to hacks and bugs as, say, your laptop?
It’s a worrying thought that you could theoretically lose a house, or at least its digital contents, to malware. But how serious is the threat? What’s the likelihood of a connected house actually being hacked?
The level of security is in the hands of the user – just like with all IT devices. Products should be set up correctly, and software should be kept updated. It’s important to use strong passwords and to change those passwords regularly.
Robust network security is essential. Wi-Fi networks need to be protected so that devices are not compromised. A high-quality device will have an intuitive user interface so that security settings are easy to manage, but this process is very much about consumer education.
Smart Tech in Business
Over the last few years, there’s been a rise in the number of smart security products in businesses: smart alarms, sensors, and smart locks have become incredibly popular in certain sectors like leisure facilities, office blocks, and hotels. The flexibility, monitoring and accountability of smart tech has proven popular for businesses looking to improve their security.
Smart Tech in Towns and Cities
Let’s go a little bigger in scale and think outside the home and business, to smart cities. The infrastructure we base our lives around is becoming increasingly smart. Road sensors are networked, traffic signals are automated, power grids are remotely managed – even buildings feed data back to an information centre to be analysed. Cities are alive and smart.
A major concern is that networks can intentionally be corrupted by bad data, leading to faulty analysis and, eventually, the wrong action – from something as small-scale as messing with streetlamps timings, to dangerous acts like hacking road sensors.
But security technology continues to evolve in line with the technology it protects. This includes security embedded within the device itself, in the local network, and in the connection with remote servers and databases. There’s a growing use of encryption at each layer.
Contact Us
If you’d like to learn more about smart homes and businesses, give us a call on 01263 805012 or email info@fortify247.net.
