'Smart Homes' Could Be Hacked If Not Choose Wisely: Do You Want Your House To Be Haunted By A Complete Stranger?

'Smart Homes' Could Be Hacked If Not Choose Wisely:

Do you want your house to be haunted by a complete stranger?

“I can see all of the devices in your home and I think I can control them,” a complete stranger said to Thomas Hatley who lives in Oregon and had been awoken with an early phone call on a Thursday morning. 

He and his wife were still in bed. Expressing surprise, he asked this stranger to try to turn the master bedroom lights on and off. Seconds later, not only lights, but also television came on. “I’ll be darned”, Mr. Hatley said in the phone.

This is not a fabricated story, but a true report on Forbes Tech.

The home automation market was worth $1.5 billion in 2012 according to Reuters; there’s been an explosion in products that promise to make our homes “smarter.” Many of these products have smart phone apps and Web portals that let users operate devices, cameras, and locks from afar. The function sounds really amazing, and so many people embrace this new lifestyle without thorough consideration and cautious selection. Here’s problem: as we bring the things in our homes onto the Internet, we run into the same kind of security concerns we have for any connected device: they could get hacked! 

To prevent being hacked, you need to pay attention to more than function. All functions provided by different brands are similar, remote monitor, remote control and automation. However, technologies of networking behind functions are so much distinct. It could be as simple as Bluetooth, radio frequency and Wi-Fi, or be more advanced one such as Zwave and ZigBee.

Contrary to lots of smart home brands who were exposed to have hacking problem, Wulian receives zero report of hacking issue. From the very beginning, Wulian sets network safety as its priority. Smart home function only makes sense after safety is guaranteed. Otherwise, how could people feel relieved to let an automation system take over their houses?

Googling a very simple phrase led me to a list of “smart homes” that had done something rather stupid. The homes all have an automation system from Insteon that allows remote control of their lights, hot tubs, fans, televisions, water pumps, garage doors, cameras, and other devices, so that their owners can turn these things on and off with a smart phone app or via the Web. The dumb thing? Their systems had been made crawl-able by search engines – meaning they show up in search results — and due to Insteon not requiring user names and passwords by default in a now-discontinued product, a stranger was able to click on the links, giving me the ability to turn these people’s homes into haunted houses, energy-consumption nightmares, or even robbery targets. Opening a garage door could make a house ripe for actual physical intrusion.

The ZigBee technology is a perfectly suitable choice for developing smart home. Its strict encryption is born for resisting hacking. Wulian is an advanced member of ZigBee Global Alliance and participates in the establishment of home automation industry standard. From network reliability to the safety of user data on server, Wulian has all considered thoughtfully.