Security Vulnerabilities of IOT Devices- How to Remain Safe

The security vulnerabilities of IoT devices is a serious cause of concern of administrators.

Most IoT devices lack basic security protections, which provides the opportunity to hackers to use these mediums to launch attacks. Nowadays, many companies are into manufacturing of these IoT devices and you will find a huge number of these products floating the market. So it becomes difficult to choose the right provider.

Cybercriminals target the IoT devices due to the huge availability of these devices in various forms.  Cybercrooks are able to spy on people and blackmail them if they are able to hack the IoT devices. Another issue with these IoT devices is that these products are not often updated by users due to which certain loopholes are created that can be utilized by cyber crooks.  In most cases, users of these IoT devices do not change the default username and password. A username of an Admin and password name 1234 can be easily guessed by a Cybercriminal.

Hackers attempt to target government and corporate network databases taking advantage of these weak IOT devices.

Some of the common security issues of IoT devices include:

• Insecure Web Interface
• Insufficient Authentication/Authorisation
• Insecure Network Services
• Lack of Transport Encryption
• Insecure Cloud Interface
• Insufficient Security Configurability
• Insecure Mobile Interface
• Insecure Software/Firmware

Owing to the increasing use of these smart devices, investment in securing these products will increase by many folds.  However, as an end user, you need to adopt certain best practices to prevent yourself from becoming a victim.

1. Before purchasing an IOT device, research on the internet and check if there is any news of vulnerability. It can happen that the device you want to purchase has already been targeted by hackers. So you will get information that the device has been patched or not.

2. Do not go for new products which are just released in the market. New products often carry bugs which may not be detected by security researchers. It’s good to purchase products, which have become stable in the market and went through several software updates.