9 keys to cyberprotect IoT devices

• S2 Group has stressed that the proliferation of connected items in households requires an increase in the awareness of families in order to cyber-protect them and prevent them from becoming victims of cybercriminals.
• Due to the fact that every year on Black Friday there is an increase in the purchase of IoT articles, the team of experts of S2 Grupo has elaborated a decalogue with essential recommendations to adequately protect “smart devices”.

Valencia, November 21, 2019.- S2 Grupo, a company specialized in cybersecurity and critical systems management, has warned that the proliferation of IoT devices (Internet of Things) in homes requires an increase in the awareness among families to promote the protection of these connected devices and thus protect their privacy. “There are more and more homes with smart TVs, smart light bulbs, connected surveillance cameras, smart plugs, smart loud-speakers, etc.  This is fantastic because it gives us value and functionality on a day-to-day basis, but it also means an increase in the exposure of households to possible interference from third parties and we must be aware of that”, explained José Rosell, managing-partner of S2 Grupo. “Leaving the default settings on these devices, not even looking at them or setting them inappropriately, can lead to serious problems for home security and privacy if they are victims of cybercriminals. The purpose of these is usually economic, because private information moves a lot of money in their environments. This can be from theft of keys, card data, photographs, videos or information from the companies where they work, for example”, said Miguel A. Juan, managing-partner of S2 Grupo. In this context and, predicting that in view of the upcoming Black Friday every year there is an increase in the purchase of IoT articles, the team of experts of S2 Grupo have developed a decalogue of essential recommendations to adequately protect these devices:

1. Check the configuration of the Wi-Fi network - the router must have a strong password (and have changed the default name and password) to prevent third parties from connecting to the network and devices without permission.
2. Review the access passwords to the devices - it is essential to change the passwords and access user that comes standard, since this data is easily located on the network or simply having the same item.
3. Use different passwords for each device - If we use different passwords from those we used in other Internet services, for example, we will increase our cybersecurity. This is because if, for some reason, we have registered in some space that is compromised by the action of cybercriminals, we will not jeopardize the rest of our connected devices.
4. Check that passwords are strong - That is, they must have upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols in between. Never include personal information such as the date of a birthday, for example.
5. Review privacy and security settings - Almost all connected items have a “setup” menu in their applications or on the website that manages them from where a privacy and security setting can be made. In this way, you can prevent them from obtaining information for commercial purposes. For example, voice assistants usually keep a history of audio entries when interacting with them, and that history can be viewed or deleted.
6. Activate automatic updates on smart devices so that they are covered against possible security holes.
7. Activate the antivirus search option - Some smart TVs have this function and it is interesting that they perform it periodically.
8. Review the applications or skills of IoT devices. In the same way as when installing a new option in mobile phones or tablets we give permissions to it, in the configuration of IoT devices we can review and disable those that do not interest us.
9. Download new features for IoT devices only from official stores. Doing so from other places may be the cause of a malware infection.

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