How to secure your Smart Home Network...

HtAV: Hi, welcome back to HowToAV.tv. We’re here at ISE 2017 and today we’re joined by Chuck Espinosa who really is one of the AV industry experts and head trainers for InfoComm. Chuck, welcome to HowToAV and welcome to ISE. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Chuck, I know you’re covering so many subjects on the InfoComm seminar program this week, one of which is cybersecurity. Now, let’s talk about why that is so important in the home as we add more and more devices to our home network.

Chuck: Well, cybersecurity is getting to be a big topic. It hit the corporate industries first and people started realising they needed to lock down their homes because we have so many devices in our homes now: thermostats, light bulbs, speakers. For the average homeowner they don’t have a cybersecurity or an IT team that will come and do that for them, so most of the people get it from the company, their service provider, and they bring it in they set it in their home and they turn it on and go–without thinking about security that’s involved in that... You have your computer, your home computers, your tablets, your phones and I know a lot of people do banking on their tablets and phones and whatnot and, without that lock on the door, it kind of gives those undesirable computer thieves the means to come in and peruse all of your information: your banking information, your wills and medical information, if you have that on there. So it’s starting to be a very big topic with the home, trying to get the homeowner educated and a few tips for the homeowners to be able to secure their network.

I heard a story recently about one of the guys in the talk said he walked outside and opened his door and there’s one of the neighbor girls sitting on his porch and he said “Hey, what’s going on?”, she said “I’m just using your Wi-Fi.” Oh, okay, you might want to secure that. So it’s getting to be huge being able to protect your home network just like you protect your home valuables.

HtAV: So, we need to protect our homes and we need to protect our own personal data as well. Chuck, give us some great tips that are going to ensure that we do have a safe home network.

Tip 1 Change your password

Chuck: Well, tip number one is change your password. Usually the passwords will come from the service provider or a brand new router or modem switch, whatever you buy, has a standard password and everyone knows what they are and most people don’t change them. So, that’s the number one. If a thief has the keys to your house, he’s gonna come in and take your stuff.

Tip 2 MAC filtering (Media Access Control)

Chuck: Second thing is MAC filtering. A lot of people don’t know what MAC filtering is: your device has a specific hardware address and you can program that hardware address into your switch and it will only allow those hardware addresses to connect to your network. So, MAC filtering is a big thing. And there are ways around it, you can clone a MAC, spoof or whatever... Every lock can be broken, it’s just a little bit harder for those guys to do it. And just like a home with a lock on the door, if someone comes to your door and it’s locked, they go to the next house to check to see if it’s an easier target. So, MAC filtering is a great way to lock a network down.

Tip 3 ‘Neighbourhood Network Watch’

Chuck: I personally go to my neighbours and offer this service of “Let’s reset your passwords” or show them how to set their own passwords; “Let’s change the channel so we’re not all on the same channel”; let me show you how to MAC filter, and reaching out to your neighbors and the people around, so your neighborhood’s more secure. It’s kind of like a little Neighborhood Network Watch that I do and help my neighbors out with. A lot of them being in IT or being in technology or very accepting, we all work together and we have a safe neighborhood.

HtAV: We’re thinking about the family as well–even the mums and the dads and the grandmas have got Wi-Fi in the home as well–but just thinking about that home network there are there are so many open networks, so passing that on as well is a great tip.

Chuck: Those networks that have family members on them, just think about your grandma trying to connect to the network and if you have a huge security system, it’s very hard for them to: I got a new device and I don’t know this twenty-six digit code and I’m just confused–I just want to check the weather! Well, those networks that are more open are easier to get into for the family, they’re also easier to get into for the not-family. So, we want to assist those people and we want to make it user friendly and easier for them. So there’s certain things you can do, again, as a home administrator of the network to try to make that as user friendly for Grandma as possible, but still keep it locked down. MAC filtering is a great way, you know: “Hey grandma, can I see your device real quick?..” Boom, done. You can go on about your business, check your soap operas.

Tip 4 Hide SSIDs (Service Set Identifiers)

Chuck: Hiding your SSID is another one. A lot of people don’t hide their SSIDs and if everyone in the family knows what it is or it’s your last name or whatnot, if you broadcast that people know where that house is. And you don’t you don’t really think about that if you put your home name or your surname in your SSID, but then they can associate that with your address. And that’s just another piece of information that cyber criminals can get to use in their search for data on you. So change that SSID to something random and hide it, you know, maybe put it on a Post-it on the refrigerator so everyone knows what it is and you can still connect, but hide that thing.

Tip 5 Regularly check your bank statements

HtAV: I guess simple tips, a non tech tip, but keep an eye on bank statements, you know, cybersecurity, keep it safe, but if somebody is gonna steal from you, they’re not gonna take tens of thousands of pounds from your account–its small amounts–and just keeping an eye on that is a good measure as well.

Chuck: I’ve heard several stories of people when they get hit by phishing scams or whatnot or people get their credit cards, the first charge you see is not five or six thousand dollars–it’s a dollar, two dollars–and they wait to see if you actually report that. Most people see a dollar charge and they think it’s an ATM fee or something small, but those are those little nibbles that those crooks take at you, so if you see those one or two dollar charges definitely check those out if you don’t know what they are because pretty soon after two or three one of two dollar chargers, then you’ll see that $5,000 charge, “I should have checked that.” Yeah, definitely check those small charges.

HtAV: There’s gonna be more and more devices in the home and in the office that are going to be added to that network–do keep it safe, do keep it secure. If you’ve got any questions about cybersecurity, if you need some help, leave us some comments in the section below. If you’ve got any great ideas, any great tips, drop a comment and we would love to hear from you.

Chuck, thanks for joining us–Thank you very much–we’ve got loads more information coming from ISE 2017 on HowToAV.tv–don’t forget to subscribe and keep viewing.

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