Houses are getting smarter: smart thermostats manage our heating, while smart fridges can monitor our food consumption and help us order groceries. Some houses even have smart doorbells that tell us who is on our doorstep. And of course, smart TVs allow us to stream the content we want to watch, when we want to watch it.

If that all sounds very futuristic, a recent survey tells us that 23% of people in western Europe and 42% of people in the US use smart devices at home.

While these smart devices are certainly convenient, they can also present security risks. Any device with an internet connection can be compromised and taken over by attackers.

If a compromised smart device has a camera or microphone, an attacker may access these and any data on the device can be read, viewed, copied, edited or erased. The compromised smart device may start to look at your network traffic, trying to find your usernames, passwords and financial data. It may look to take over other smart devices that you own.

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