FBI Warns Against IoT Vulnerabilities

In a weekly tech advice column, the FBI's Portland office recently released an ominous warning to US homeowners, "Your fridge and your laptop should not be on the same network."

While the reason is simple, the repercussions can be devastating. Today's hackers have the uncanny ability to gain access to your home's IoT devices - think microwave, remote-controlled bulbs, and even Amazon Echo. Once in, they're a short hop, skip and a jump away from gaining direct access to your home's wireless network - and by proxy, your digital devices.

If this sounds scary to you, it's because it is. Your most vulnerable IoT devices are wireless cameras, baby monitors, smart thermostats and smart locks. All have unique vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited and give entry to anyone looking for a way into your most private hardware devices.

The FBI's best advice for keeping your devices secure and safe? "Keep your most private, sensitive data on a separate system from your other IoT devices. "According to the FBI's recommendation, you should have two routers at home: one for your IoT devices and another one for your more private devices.

While this may be new information to some consumers, today’s companies already understand the necessity for such precautionary protections. In the not-that-unlikely chance a business’s network is compromised, their entire infrastructure is at risk of exploitation. Gaining access to high-risk digital assets can lead to devastating revenue damages - which is nothing to take lightly.

To stay secure, individuals and organizations can create secure zones within their data centers and cloud environments with micro-segmentation. This quick and simple fix enables them to use all IoT and hardware devices without the concern of a hack or breach from within their network.