These days, you can easily buy various gadgets that can transform your house into a smart home. You can equip security doors with doorbell cameras. You can even have a refrigerator that sends your smartphone notifications about food items you need to purchase. Generally, having a smart home makes life more convenient. However, this technology also brings several security concerns.

Thankfully, there are extra measures you can take to keep your smart home secured. In this post, we are going to discuss them.

Remember to Change the Default Passwords

One of the simplest things you can do to reinforce the security of your smart home is to change the default passwords. If you neglect to do this, you are making your network vulnerable to attacks and hacking. So, before you try to reinforce your network’s security, we recommend taking this step first.

The first thing you need to do is go to the homepage of your router—it’s usually 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. Go to Settings and look for the Security section. Make sure to replace the administrator password with a strong one. Ideally, you should use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters. However, you do not have to limit yourself to the alphabet. You can insert numbers and even special characters. A strong password consists of around 16 alphanumeric characters. Changing your password ensures that hackers won’t be able to break into your network quickly.

Ensuring that your Network is Secure

It can be challenging to configure the network of your smart home. However, it will reinforce your security. Consider setting up a separate WiFi network for your smart devices that you prefer tethered to one another. You must ensure that there is a different line for your home automation’s network traffic. It shouldn’t share the same network with your mobile devices and computers where you likely access data like e-mail and banking passwords. So, if there is a denial-of-service attack, the hacked line will not be associated with sensitive information.

You should avoid sharing your WiFi with your neighbours. If you have friends coming over, think about using a mesh WiFi router system or a guest network. Doing either of these will allow you to monitor network traffic between your guests and devices. You can easily find good mesh WiFi options, including Google WiFi, Netgear Orbi, and Eero. These user-friendly products can help you add a guest network conveniently, allowing you to see what devices are connected.

Keep Updating the Firmware of your Smart Devices

By default, your smart devices or Internet of Things (IoT) devices will not update automatically. You will need to use the app on your smartphone to perform this task. So, it is crucial that you set a schedule for updating your smart devices, including the alarm systems connected to your security doors. It is worth noting that updates usually come with new tech that eliminates potential vulnerabilities. They are also useful in fixing bugs and errors, as well as optimising the performance of your smart devices.

Use a Multi-Factor Authentication System

One of the most useful steps you can include in the whole process is a multi-factor authentication system. With this security measure, you will need your phone to complete a sign-in. Instead of solely using a password, you will receive a code on your phone. That said, you will use the code to login to your device successfully.

A two-step authentication system is useful, especially when you are using a cloud service for your smart devices. This way, only you can access your accounts. This method has become common for user accounts in tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, among others. So, if this feature is available, you need to take advantage of it. It is beneficial for your smart home and all your online accounts.

Use an Anti-Virus Software Program

This option may not apply to your IoT devices, but it is useful for your laptop/PC and smartphone. We recommend installing a reliable anti-virus program on your devices. This way, you will be able to reinforce the security of your items that contain your personal and sensitive data.

If you can, look for an anti-malware tool that will efficiently check your system memory and look for malicious programs running in the background. The great thing about this software program is that it also detects cookies that record your activities and collect your data. With an anti-malware program, you will also be able to eliminate suspicious entries in your registry. It will even scan your browser extensions, preventing data leaks.

That said, if your home automation devices share the same network as your laptop, phones and tablets, you can still secure your online activities. This way, you can prevent hackers from breaking into your smart home’s network. They won’t gain access to your security doors, alarm systems, and files.