WISPAPALOOZA 2019 Show Daily Day 1

1 8 WISPA PALOOZA SHOW I OCTOBER 14 - 18, 2019 www.bekabusinessmedia.com L Z OO 2019 COMMENT Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet 01 DAY 02 02 DAY 03 D Y 3 DAY 01 A DAY 1 WiFi Security: Are You Responsible for Locking the Door? I t doesn’t have to be Halloween to have a home network security scare. Last month, a Milwaukee couple’s smart home made headlines when an attacker hacked their Nest account, raising the home’s temperature to 90 degrees and playing vulgar music. It’s horror stories such as these that are increasing awareness about consumer device security. A recent survey conducted on behalf of The Internet Society and Consumers Interna- tional found that more than half (55 percent) of consumers do not trust their connected devices. In this Nest device case, account creden- tials were the culprit, but in many cases, it’s a vulnerable router or a connected device vulner- ability. With 2.9 billion global cyberattacks on IoT recorded by Symantec in the first half of 2019 (up 300 percent from the past year), many smart homes are vulnerable to network intrusions, ransom- ware, botnets, worms, spyware and other known exploits. Just last month, security researchers discovered 125 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) across 13 different router models; the brands included ASUS, Lenovo, Netgear and Zyxel. Insecure routers are espe- cially disappointing – a revolving door for attackers when they should be padlocked with an alarm and an intimi- dating guard dog. Not only can the home router be hardened, it can be a critical point for stop- ping threats before they become problems. Competing on quality of experience, most ISPs now deliver managed routers to the h me. By definition, the managed Wi-Fi solution’s degree of security is a product feature. Big ISPs such as Comcast are recognizing this and releasing services including Xfinity xFi Advanced Security, which is also serving to educate the consumer on network protection in the smart home era. It’s only a matter of time before network security becomes table stakes to broadband subscribers. Who would buy a home that can’t be locked? m By Nicole Hayward Nicole Hayward is the founder and CMO of Minim