Only one in five Americans think they are susceptible to cyber threats at home, according to a new survey by NordVPN.
“While it is natural for people to feel safer at home than in public places, in terms of cybersecurity, your home is as vulnerable as any other place,” Marijus Briedis, NordVPN’s chief technical officer (CTO), said in a press release shared with VPNOverview.
“A deceptive peace and lack of protective measures lead to serious cybersecurity issues that could affect the private life and security of all household members.”
The Threat to Home Networks
According to Briedis, internet-connect devices in homes, including routers and smart IoT devices, are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
“The connection between a router and a device is like a two-way bridge: sophisticated malware from an infected device can spread to the WiFi router and infect other devices connected to the home network. It can also stay in the router and collect data from any other device in the network or change router settings and redirect users to malicious websites,” he explained.
This threat to home networks is well-known among cybersecurity experts. Researchers have published papers over the years highlighting vulnerabilities in WiFi networks.
In 2021, an Israeli researcher successfully hacked into 70 percent of WiFi networks in and around Tel Aviv from the street. Even more disturbingly, earlier this year, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University created full-body images of people in a room by manipulating the signals of WiFi routers.
Smart Home Devices: Convenience at a Cost?
Briedis said smart home devices, like smart TVs and even smart home security systems, can pose a safety risk.
“Ironically, without proper setup, home security systems with video cameras and sensors all around the home could serve not the household’s security, but criminals. Sometimes, they [cybercriminals] blackmail families… On other occasions, doorbells.. or even cameras inside the home become a tool for burglars to know if it is safe to get in and rob the house or not,” he explained.
The more IoT devices in a home, the wider the attack surface cybercriminals can exploit. Threat actors usually leverage access to one compromised IoT device to spread to other devices in a home network.
“Once people have broken into a single device, then typically what they will do is what we call pivot, so they own, if you will, a particular device,” Steve Beaty, computer science chair at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, told WTKR News 3 in February. “And now, all of a sudden, they’re inside and most of our devices then trust the networks that they’re on.”
Meanwhile, in September, Kaspersky researchers found active listings for IoT hacking services, exploits for IoT vulnerabilities, and malware on dark web marketplaces. To address the growing threats to IoT devices, the U.S. plans to introduce a “Cyber Trust” label to indicate which smart home devices meet basic cybersecurity requirements.
Protecting Your Home From Cyberthreats
While only 19% of people in countries like America and Australia are concerned about cybersecurity at home, in other countries, including Spain and Poland, that figure is much lower — 9% and 10.1%, respectively.
Briedis emphasized the importance of taking steps to bolster the safety of your home network and smart devices. “If you lay the proper groundwork for your smart home, you can enjoy its benefits without risking your privacy,” he said.
Changing default router login credentials, keeping your router and smart devices updated, and using a strong WiFi password are some simple security measures that can improve the safety of your home network. Additionally, Briedis recommends disabling remote management and enabling network firewalls.
In addition to these security tips, we highly recommend using a VPN to block hackers from breaching traffic to/from your home network. You can install a VPN on your router and cover all your devices automatically.
For more news, follow us on X (Twitter), Threads, and Mastodon!
