The average home now has an increasing number of connected devices. The so-called Internet of things (IoT) are adding an always-online connection to almost every new home appliance, from refrigerators to toasters and doorbells.

It has been reported that every second, around 127 new devices are connected to the Internet, and it's also predicted there will be 75 billion IoT devices by 2025. But these home devices could be attacked by hackers to steal consumer data.

Many organizations stress the importance of protecting connected devices like smartphones or smart speakers; however, consumers overlook a list of other IoT devices when thinking about security in their homes.

Hidden in plain sight, smart appliances, connected light bulbs, or routers can be used as a gateway for hackers to infiltrate home networks and steal data. Still, they are not typically called out as security threats. With more devices being added to the market daily, what do consumers need to know to protect themselves from a hack in their own home?

Brad Ree, CTO of the ioXt Alliance, shares his mission of building confidence in Internet of Things products through multi-stakeholder, international, harmonized, and standardized security and privacy requirements, product compliance programs, and public transparency of those requirements and programs.

We discuss the vulnerable devices in the consumer IoT market and examples of hacks. I learn what consumers need to know to protect themselves from hackers. We also discuss the importance of global security standard adoption in the IoT industry.