Your smart home is at risk - 6 ways to protect your devices from attack

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. As a smart home user, I pause anytime a major data breach hits the news cycle, especially one that involves devices I own or recommend, like security cameras. Recent reports have underscored the question: How easily can your smart home devices be hacked? Also: Your smart plug is seriously underutilized: 7 ways I've programmed it in my smart home Most of us have some internet of things (IoT) devices at home, whether it's a phone, a tablet, or a collection of security cameras and sensors. When you learn that 120,000 home security cameras were hacked in South Korea for sexploitation footage, it makes you think twice about adding such devices to your home, which is your most sacred space for privacy. All smart homes are at risk of being hacked, but it's not a likely event. The type of bad actors that target smart homes and devices, such as security cameras, are opportunistic. They search randomly for easy targets -- they don't tend to choose a particular home to attack and then try to circumvent that specific system. Also: My 8 favorite smart home devices of the year The best way to prevent an attack on your smart home devices is to not be an easy target. Unfortunately, many of the smart home hacks you hear about in news reports occur because people fail to follow the necessary security steps that would offer defense against those attacks. Using weak passwords, failing to keep your firmware up to date, or having exposed Wi-Fi ...