How Can You Avoid Hacked Smart Devices that Put Your Family at Risk?

Protect Your Family and Company from Hacked Smart Devices

To protect your company from e-Skimmers and hackers looking to exploit IoT devices, contact Alvarez Technology Group today.

Families buy security cameras and other digital tools to monitor areas of the home while they are away. They also make it possible to check on small children from other areas of the home. However, without the proper precautions, it may be possible for cybercriminals to spy on your family from remote locations.

Luis Alvarez, CEO of Alvarez Technology Group speaks to this issue on this podcast. He suggests changing the default passwords that come with the cameras to make it harder for criminals to hack into your system and compromise your privacy.

Can Hackers Use Your Security Camera to Spy on You?

Most people leave devices set to the default passwords for convenience. The bad guys know this and they are out on the internet waiting to exploit these opportunities. In one video, a Ring camera was hacked by a stranger, who used the opportunity to talk to a little girl. He called himself Santa Claus and told her to mess up her room.
“Once something is connected to the Internet it makes it susceptible to be accessed remotely,” according to Alvarez. He suggests using complex passwords that are hard to guess for TVs, cameras and speakers that connect to the internet. Using a space in passwords (if allowed by the manufacturer) makes it very hard to guess or hack into remotely.

Is Your Online Shopping Cart Safe?

Hackers hover near online shopping carts, which are notoriously information-rich and security-poor hunting grounds. They want to steal your personal financial information, such as credit card numbers. e-Skimmers hack into weak websites and drop in code that lets them track what’s going on in real-time. This information is used to clone your credit card and compromise your financial security.

“Cybercriminals introduce skimming code on e-commerce payment card processing web pages to capture credit card and personally identifiable information and send the stolen data to a domain under their control,” according to a U.S. government site set up to promote cyber awareness.

It’s not just individuals who fall prey to e-Skimmers.

“Any business accepting online payments on their website is at risk of an e-Skimming attack. This threat has impacted e-commerce companies in the retail, entertainment, and travel industries as well as utility companies and third-party vendors,” according to the committee for National Cyber Awareness Month, which hosts events throughout the month of October.

To protect your company from e-Skimmers and hackers looking to exploit IoT devices, contact Alvarez Technology Group today.