Smart Home Networks and Security

Some fixable design flaws in the WiFi standard, coupled with a bunch of implementation issues, means that virtually all WiFi devices are at risk.

The Mirai worm is arguably the most well known as the source of massive attacks in the past. Things have been quiet on that front in the recent past, but research from Palo Alto networks has uncovered a new variant of both the Mirai and Gafgyt worm families that expand their attack profile.

Smart home hubs are growing in popularity, largely through the necessity of tying dozens of disparate devices together in the home. Logitech’s offering, the Harmony Hub, is a popular choice which has been examined by security firm Tenable and found lacking.

Sometimes even the respected players can stumble. If your Sonos (or Bose) speaker has been acting weird lately, researchers at Trend Micro may have found the answer.

After reading up on the various tech coverage of the last couple of weeks, things have settled down somewhat. We've gone through the usual phases of "ZOMG everything is broken!", through "It's bad, but not as bad as we thought" and now we've landed on "OK, we can work with this".

When device makers are unable, or unwilling, to put the effort into the security of consumer networking products, innocent people are left exposed to the very real threat of personal and financial damage. See how D-Link is doing things wrong.

Analysis of U-Verse modem firmware has revealed a slew of major vulnerabilities in what can only be called a security house of horrors for AT&T customers. The exposure is glaring and complete that all AT&T customers need to take action immediately. Read on to see just how bad things are.

In a case of unbelievably bad security design, researchers at Bitdefender have exposed a range of cheap security cameras in a perfect case study of how to do IoT wrong, and why poor device security is a major problem.

IP Cameras have been particularly bad citizens, with exposed Telnet ports and poor privacy controls have gained some high profile attention in the past. Scandinavian Security company F-Secure has now turned it's attention to popular home security models made by Foscam. 

ZigBee is one of the most common wireless protocols used for connected devices, both in the home and in industrial use. How secure is it today, and what do we understand of the risks right now.

The home automation industry takes a step forward in security with a new security mandate from industry leaders in the Z-Wave Alliance. Could this be the start of a renewed focus on security?