At a Glance:
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A smart home security solution like F-Secure SENSE, accompanied by an identity protection solution, protects all the devices connecting to the home network from malware and viruses and offers parental controls.
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Nearly 32% of breach victims back in 2016 later experienced identity fraud, compared to just 2.8% of individuals not notified of a data breach in 2016.
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F-Secure’s new IDENTITY THEFT CHECKER offers the clearest view available into the kind of dangers you face from data breaches and other disclosures of private data.
Security breaches are happening all the time, and their impact is often devastating. Identifying real threats from normal network activity is extremely difficult. On average it takes organization months to discover they have been breached.
As smart home technology is becoming increasingly popular, the number of attacks on the Internet of Things devices is on the rise. Your internet-connected devices - smart TVs, , smart locks, gaming consoles, smart thermostats - can add a level of convenience to your life, but they could also make your home and vulnerable. A recent spate of incidents involving consumer IoT devices has seen malicious users gaining access to home networks through holes in device security.
IoT has a large role to play in the future of home devices, so avoiding the technology doesn’t benefit users in the long run. As hot new gadgets seek to make your home smarter and more efficient, it’s still up to you to learn how to secure the connected devices throughout your smart home. Staying one step ahead of the attackers requires a holistic approach to protection, focusing as much on the whole puzzle as its individual pieces. To see the big picture, we need more than just technology.
It’s well known that smart devices are vulnerable to hacking, due to a manufacturing cycle that prizes speed to market over getting the details of security right. Hence the need for smart home security solutions like F-Secure SENSE, conveniently available via broadband providers.
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But the cloud services used to manage putting consumers’ private photos, video feeds, personal information, and other data potentially at risk in the event of a hack.
IoT cloud service breached
In late December 2019, Wyze, a company that makes budget home-security cameras, acknowledged a security breach in its system that exposed the information of 2.4 million customers. The compromised data included email addresses, camera nicknames, Wi-Fi names, gender, health data such as weight, and information on the users’ Wyze devices.
Wyze Labs executives said the data breach, which lasted 23 days, was caused by an employee’s mistake. The company warned customers to watch out for phishing attempts and spam, as their email addresses may have leaked to third parties.
Cybersecurity protocols aren't nearly as effective for home devices as what you would find on a laptop or smartphone. And because they're connected to the Internet, these devices are a potential doorway into your laptop and smartphone if they're on the same network. Even if you take all the proper precautions to protect your devices and accounts from compromise, you still have no control over how well the cloud services behind those devices protect your data. As we have seen over and over in the news headlines, too often, when it comes to security, these cloud services fail us.
I used to get calls once a month from clients about someone attempting to impersonate their identity and steal money. Now, these types of incidents are happening on a weekly basis.
Diana Nichols, President, and Founder of Gold Key Credit Consulting in Fairfield, Connecticut.
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The ID theft risk is real
Identity thieves are getting smarter, which means that consumers have to be even more vigilant when it comes to protecting their personal information and their financial well-being. Preventing identity theft online means not letting your personal information fall into the wrong hands. Even if you are securing all your accounts with banks, credit cards, online services, social media platforms, and webmail providers properly, and leaks that businesses deal with on a constant basis. Often, victims are unaware for months, or even years, before the results of a compromised identity become apparent. Nearly 32% of breach victims back in 2016 later experienced identity fraud, compared to just 2.8% of individuals not notified of a data breach in 2016, according to Javelin Research. 7 million consumers experienced identity theft in 2017, according to an online survey conducted for Symantec by The Harris Poll in 2018.
An attacker can exploit any bit of personal information to try to monetize in some way. In the case of the Wyze breach, emails were exposed, allowing attackers to target live email accounts with phishing messages that would trick users into giving up their passwords. The goal: Account takeover and attackers will try to get into as many accounts as possible.
With one compromised password, attackers can use automation to credential stuff their way into other accounts. Once an attacker obtains access to an account, he or she can assume the role of the account holder. That means taking advantage of the account’s privileges by performing bank transfers, making credit card purchases online, transferring loyalty points, and so on. The attacker can also gather as much personal info on the victim as possible, to lead to other forms of ID theft. And he or she can change the account password, locking out the rightful account owner and ensuring the attacker’s ability to access it.
According to a new F-Secure report, most people think they’ll likely be victims of identity theft or cybercrime. And with good reason. Criminals who get ahold of personal data try anything from hacking our critical accounts to taking over our identities. Or—if the crooks think you’re worth it—they’ll use the data for a targeted attack.
Every data breach is a reminder that protecting private data requires more than securing our devices
F-Secure Global Partner Product Advocate Fennel Aurora.
Consumers are largely aware of the problem: In an F-Secure survey, 7 out of 10 consumers agreed they could likely become a victim of cybercrime or identity theft, while 56% are worried about losing their personal information as part of a data breach.
Protect your customers’ identities
The way we are online today are more complex than ever. Almost every device is connected. That’s why, when it comes to operator value-added services, a smart home security solution like F-Secure SENSE is perfectly accompanied by an identity protection solution.
F-Secure combines the real-life experiences of seasoned cybersecurity consultants with award winning technologies to protect their customers. F-Secures’ unique approach creates intelligent security solutions for today and well into the future. SENSE is, after all, one of the first routers designed to protect IoT devices. While SENSE protects all the devices connecting to the home network from malware and viruses and offers parental controls, adds a layer of security for cloud services.
A password manager helps users create and store a strong, unique password for each online service, significantly reducing the risk of account takeovers. ID PROTECTION also monitors for and detects leaked personal information in all corners of the web and dark web, and responds quickly to identity theft threats by alerting the user if their leaked data is found. Consumers are guided through step-by-step instructions if their info is found in a breach.
With ID PROTECTION, operator customers get best-in-class monitoring and alerting. Due to a combination of expert human intelligence and cutting-edge automated scanning technologies, F-Secure has the shortest lead times finding exposed data after a breach, and one of the highest hit rates for email addresses.
An excellent pairing
F-Secure ID Protection is the perfect complement to our Connected Home Security solution. It’s the opposite side of the same coin. Securing your devices and detecting if there are anomalies in your home network is essential, yet it doesn’t protect your data when it ends up in the cloud. By combining human intelligence with dark web scanning, data breaches can be detected everywhere, much faster than it is by services that use dark web scanning alone.
Kristian Järnefelt, Executive Vice President, Consumer Security at F-Secure
With both services working together, consumers get full protection for their IoT devices, the cloud services that work to manage these devices, and their connected home.