The cybersecurity company Avast has published Avast Smart Home Report 2019 that showed that two out of five digital home worldwide contains at least one device that is vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
The company headquartered in Prague mentioned in their report that smart devices such as security cameras, baby monitors, TV media boxes, smart TVs, printers and gaming consoles are entering home and along with them the cyber threat also entering the household at a rapid pace.
"Despite widespread warnings to consumers to change passwords and pick strong and unique ones for all devices, over 69% of vulnerable devices are still at risk due to default or weak access credentials, which offers hackers easy access and the opportunity to seize control of these devices," added the report.
Avast said that they scanned more than 16 million different home networks worldwide and particularly focused on 21 countries in North and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
The report suggested that only one connected device can compromise the security of the whole home network.
As reported by IT Brief, Ondrej Vlcek Avast consumer president said that people use "smart TV to watch their favourite Netflix series or connect their baby monitor to their home network. However, often they don't know how to maintain the security of that device.
"It only takes one weak device to let in a bad hacker and once they are on the network, they can access other devices and the personal data they stream or store, including live videos and voice recordings. Simple security steps will significantly improve the integrity of digital homes.
"For example, the setting of strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication for all device access, and ensuring software patches and firmware updates are applied when available."
The reports included a chart stating 'share of connected homes with one or more vulnerable devices per country' and the result shows India is in the top with 52.4 per cent and then the second position holder Singapore with 47.3 percent.
The company stated that the greatest risk for smart homes are weak credentials, as the research found that two out of five digital homes worldwide contain at least one device which is vulnerable to cyber threats or data hacking.
- 40.8 percent contain at least one device that is vulnerable to cyber attacks
- 69.2 percent which is vulnerable have weak access credentials
- 59.7 percent of routers have weak credentials or some vulnerabilities
- 59.1 percent users worldwide have never logged into their router or have never updated its firmware
As per the information provided by the cybersecurity company, the most vulnerable devices in Singapore, apart PCs, smartphones and routers, are:
- Printers- 37.4 Percent
- Security Cameras- 19.8 Percent
- Network nodes- 17.6 Percent
- NAS- 12.9 Percent
- Media boxes- 7.8 Percent
- DVRs- 2.9 Percent
- TVs- 1 Percent
