AI has made many things easier; almost anyone can vibe-code something usable without any programming knowledge. Unfortunately, thanks to AI, it’s also never been easier to hack someone’s smart home.
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How AI has brought hacking to the masses
The barrier to entry has disappeared
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According to the movies, in order to be able to hack (or block someone from hacking you) you need to be able to type really fast on your computer keyboard. The faster you type, the more you hack, or something. While that’s obviously nonsense, in the past, hacking has required at least some level of computing knowledge.
Unfortunately, the bar to being able to hack has been significantly lowered by the rise of AI. An AI chatbot may be able to provide you with information that can help you learn how to hack, and can be used to write code for you, too, even if you have no idea about coding at all.
This means that the technical barrier to becoming a hacker has significantly lowered, and almost anyone with internet access and bad intentions can get hold of the tools they need.
Your smart home is the perfect hacking playground
If your tech is reachable, it’s at risk
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While hacking has never been easier, your home has never been more hackable, which is a very dangerous combination. A typical smart home can have multiple connected devices, from smart video doorbells and smart speakers to smart TVs and smart thermostats. Many of these devices are always online, making them perfect targets for hackers.
In combination, these devices make a large attack surface; AI tools can rapidly scan large numbers of devices, identify vulnerabilities, and launch attacks at a scale that was previously out of reach for most people. If a hacker compromises one device and gains access to your network, they may be able to get into your entire smart home. Security vulnerabilities aren’t a new thing, but the powerful methods that people can use to exploit them are.
What hackers want from your smart home
Your devices can become a weapon
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Does this really matter in the real world? Why would a hacker want to try to get access to your smart home when they could be hacking the cloud storage of celebrities or locking major companies out of their own systems and demanding payment to get back in?
The reality is that there are a lot of reasons why your smart home can be the perfect target for hackers. If they gain access to devices such as smart speakers, they may be able to listen in for sensitive information. If you’re reading out your credit card number over the phone, for example, they may be able to hear everything they need to use your card for their own ends. Smart home cameras can also be used to spy on you in your own home, and information taken from your smart home can be used for highly personalized phishing attacks.
Your smart home isn’t the only target. Once a hacker has access to your network, there’s a lot more they can get their hands on. They may be able to search through your home computers and find shared folders with sensitive files or saved passwords. They could steal your login credentials and gain access to your bank accounts, or simply use your computer to run botnets to launch bigger attacks elsewhere.
Another option for hackers is to install ransomware and lock you out of your own devices. They can encrypt your files and demand payment for the decryption key, with no guarantee that you’ll get it even if you do pay up.
The practical defenses that can thwart attacks
Make your home annoying to hack
If all of this sounds frightening, the good news is that there are some steps you can take to make your smart home far less vulnerable to attack. Just like a more secure lock may make your home too much effort to rob, the right defenses can make your home look more secure so that potential hackers look elsewhere instead. You don’t necessarily need to be completely unhackable, just less hackable than others.
Firstly, keeping all your smart home devices updated can reduce the risk of falling victim to known vulnerabilities that hackers may try to exploit. Many devices will offer automatic firmware updates, which saves you from having to remember to do it manually. Changing the default passwords on your devices and enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible is also a sound move.
A simple but effective defense is to set up a guest Wi-Fi network and move all your smart home devices onto that, while keeping the rest of your home on the main network. If your smart home devices are compromised, hackers may only be able to access your smart home devices; computers and other sensitive devices on the main network should still remain out of reach. Disabling features that can expose your smart home, such as the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) feature that can open ports on your router without your knowledge, can also reduce your risk of attack.
You could even fight AI-powered hackers by using AI yourself. Chatbots may be able to give you advice on how to secure specific devices in your home if you’re not sure of how to do it yourself. Just ensure that you don’t share sensitive data such as passwords with your chatbot of choice.
Hacking your home is only going to get easier
AI is only going to get better from here on out, and the methods that hackers use to attack your home will become increasingly sophisticated. Perhaps the strongest form of defense is to keep as much of your smart home as possible under local control so that devices only communicate over your local network. The less you expose to the outside world, the less vulnerable you become.
