these days many of us want our homes to
have the latest technology but connected
home devices create concerns about
privacy and security executive director
of Crimestoppers Houston Rania Mann
Carius recently stopped by our studio
with tips to make sure your home and
your data are protected Rania thank you
for stopping by obviously everyone wants
a connected home but you're saying that
a connected smart home can pose some
threats and vulnerabilities it's first
of all extremely convenient to have
everything about your your home you know
on your smartphone it's wonderful to be
able to turn the lights on or off your
alarm on or off to be able to check on
your child in their room you know just
through looking at an app it's wonderful
but you've got to realize what as with
any type of technology hackers can get
in yeah and what do those risks mean
when you're talking about the your home
then nuts and bolts of your home so it's
something that we want people to think
about before they dive in into these new
Smart Homes and we'll get into some tips
that you have to help us protect
ourselves first let's talk about some of
these rooms in the house starting yeah
babies around well everybody has a baby
monitor okay you have to have a lot I
don't know you don't have a baby I mean
you can use them on other guests a baby
but you have a baby and and now they're
wonderful because you can tap into them
through an app and you can actually turn
the video and you can look around the
baby's room you can hear of course and
see everything but what is happening is
people can hack in and they can actually
physically turn the camera themselves
we've seen reports of moms who are
sitting in breast feeding and somebody's
hacked in and can view that no yes and
sometimes the monitor is moved to a
bedroom or other parts of the home and
so when you have a hacker that's been
able to gain entry into that device not
only can they see your child and can
they watch you taking care of your child
but now they have they've gained entry
into any place where you've moved that
mod okay this is freaking me out no it's
just see it's a serious issue in it and
it poses a significant threat and risk
and again we will get to the ways to
avoid letting your system get backed
let's talk about the living room because
Wi-Fi connects to the smart TV
everything your Smart TV and
you you know to change the channels to
record what you're watching your habits
but also the temperature of your home
the lights in your home your smart phone
if you are not protecting those networks
and somebody in essence can literally
monitor your habits when you walk in and
turn the lights on what you know how you
like in and why would they want to do
this that's another question but the
fact is you've opened the door if you're
not protecting yourself if you have a
smartphone next to you at all times
and it's there and somebody's tapped
into that what can they hear what can
they record so it's all this stuff that
you have to watch and be careful of yeah
if someone wants to stalk you there are
a lot of ways they can do it let's talk
about door locks because increasingly
we're seeing more and more people
unlocking and locking that's that's the
biggest one to be quite honest with you
because now you're you're the security
network of your home can be infringed so
the doors to gain entry into your home
physical entry turning on and off your
alarms you know your security system as
a whole to have somebody have access and
give them the ability to crack into that
poses a huge huge risk and threat again
it's about protecting your home well and
also I mean if your location services
are on that's something else to consider
right we talk about it all the time
especially with the kids that are
probably upstairs in their room taking
photos of you know every single thing
they do in the home if their location
services are on then a predator who has
interest in your child or is watching
your family
he's very easily can gain actual access
to your home and here's the problem if
you're not smart about it once they
infiltrate one system they can easily go
to all the others design so that's why
you have to be really careful about
monitoring all of your gadgets okay so
now let's talk about how we can protect
our ourselves against our systems
getting hacked your first tip surprises
me because it's securing our wireless
network at home I just assume most
people would do that anyway well no
because people don't they get it they
put the router up and they walk away and
they assume that it's encrypted and it's
the password on there is already you
know strong enough it's like 75 letters
so it seems pretty strong when you take
it out of the box but that's actually
not true and we want people to one study
what type of Wi-Fi server they're using
make sure that it's encrypted change the
passwords always change usernames and
passwords don't take it out of the box
put it in and walk that's a great tip
you know if you don't know how to secure
your wireless network at home ask a
friend or family member to help you
password protect it's very easy to do
actually software updates this is
something that people might ignore yeah
and actually you not only ignore it but
you choose not to do it because it seems
like a hassle like it's gonna mess up
your system but we're saying just enable
them to happen automatically because it
makes sure that your system doesn't have
any bugs that the newest technology is
available for you and your family and
that you have the most up-to-date
protections in place so just enable it
to happen as they're available and
that's an easy one cuz you don't even
have to think about it exactly in the
background passwords you say change them
definitely do not use the default no do
not use a default password and really
you've got to use strong passwords
you've got to use uppercase lowercase
numbers letters and don't have the same
password for every single one of your
devices and here's an interesting tip if
you do have a smart home and you're
starting to connect locks and lights and
thermostats you say consider creating a
separate Network just for your smart
home devices to protect that entity
again we go into you want to make it as
difficult as possible for somebody who's
trying to gain entry to get access to
the heart of that information so take
every step you need to really protect
all of those gadgets and you say also we
should prevent potential physical yes
access to our smart devices and you
think about a young child that might
have a smartphone just like a parent and
an app that's automatically downloaded
and your phone is gonna be downloaded on
their phone well if they're handing
their phone to friends or strangers or
just out and about and all of your stuff
is there you've got to be careful so
we're literally saying limit the ability
for others to physically gain access to
whether it's your phone or any of your
your services or systems that protect
and guard your home what if someone
might be suspicious that perhaps their
own smart home system has been hacked
into and it's for that you've got to
immediately if you have a suspicion
immediately take every precaution change
all your usernames all your passwords if
you're suspicious about security
specifically contact your carrier make
sure that you are is this an area where
we
want you to be paranoid but you've got
to be aggressive about making sure that
your home and everything that you keep
in it all that vital information is
protective change the usernames as well
that's an important tip so folks if your
wireless network at home is called
Linksys for yeah this is fine right
change it put a password on there
absolutely Rania thank you it's good to
see you thank you for keeping us safe of
course any time and if you out there
would like more information on
crimestoppers of houston go to crime
stoppers dot org we'll be right back