It is really cool that your home has IoT devices like your refrigerator, stove, washer, dryer, dishwasher, garage door opener, door lock, smart lights and plugs, and cameras all on your Wi-Fi. But it isn’t all just fun and convenience.
Security has been an afterthought for these devices, and they have been used in cyber-attacks. In October 2016, the Mirai botnet malware used 100,000s of IoT devices around the world to launch a distributed denial of service attack on DNS servers. This attack caused widespread internet outages in Europe and North America.
You don’t have to be paranoid to understand that home IoT devices could potentially be used to launch ransomware attacks against you or participate in other attacks. That would definitely not be fun or convenient.
The good news is that there are some simple actions you can take to protect your home and family.
Along with all of the usual protections for your home Wi-Fi (see our blog “How to Improve your Home Wi-Fi security”) you should segregate your IoT devices from the rest of your devices.
You can keep your IoT devices off your main Wi-Fi network by putting them on a separate VLAN with device and network isolation if your router supports it. If not, enable your guest network and put them on that Wi-Fi network.
With today’s Wi-Fi routers, the guest network has device and network isolation. That means devices on those networks are isolated. They cannot access other devices on your main network, they can only get to the internet.
Keep your IoT devices fun and convenient with these simple changes.