How to Keep Your Smart Home Devices Secure

Smart home devices — cameras, doorbells, smart speakers, thermostats, smart locks, and even smart light bulbs — connect to the internet and can provide genuine convenience. But each connected device is also a potential entry point for attackers if not properly secured. There have been documented cases of strangers accessing home security cameras, of compromised devices being used to attack other equipment on the same network, and of smart locks with weak passwords being bypassed remotely.

The good news is that the steps to secure smart home devices are not complicated. Most of them are one-time setup actions that significantly reduce your risk.

The single most important step is changing default passwords. Nearly every router, security camera, smart doorbell, and baby monitor comes with a factory default username and password — often something like "admin" and "password." These defaults are publicly documented and hackers use automated tools to scan the internet for devices still using them. The moment you set up any smart home device, change the password to something long and unique.

Firmware updates are the next priority. Manufacturers find and fix security vulnerabilities in their devices and release updates to address them. These updates only protect you if you install them. Most smart home device apps have an update option — check periodically or enable automatic updates wherever available. Outdated firmware is one of the most common ways smart devices get compromised.

Using your router's Guest Network for smart home devices is a highly effective protection strategy. A Guest Network is a separate Wi-Fi network your router creates alongside your main network. Devices on the Guest Network cannot communicate with devices on your main network. This means if a smart light bulb gets compromised, the attacker cannot use it to access your laptop or phone — they are on separate networks. This is called network segmentation and IT professionals recommend it strongly.

Buy devices from reputable brands with track records of issuing security updates: Amazon Echo, Google Nest, Ring, Arlo, Philips Hue, August, and similar well-known brands. Avoid very cheap, unknown-brand smart devices. Budget devices often have weak security, receive no firmware updates, and may have been manufactured with backdoors.

Enable two-factor authentication on your Amazon, Google, and Apple accounts. These accounts control your smart home devices — securing the account secures the devices it manages.

Once per year, open your router app and look at the connected device list. Remove anything you no longer use. Old devices sitting on your network are unnecessary risk.