Smart Home - Are You At Risk of Surveillance or Hacking? -By Lance Winslow

It seems as if anything with software running it, or anything electronic has the possibility of being hacked. Worst, the authorities want a way into anything and everything that stores, collects, or disseminates information. But then if the authorities have a back-door, or a way in, so too does anyone who wants to find access to hack in, which I would say; "therein lies the problem." Okay so, let's talk about the Smart Grid type electricity meters, and the proverbial smart house computer systems if we might.

There was a rather troubling article in the Wall Street Journal on August 3, 2013 titled; "Smart Homes Are a Hacking Risk," by Danny Yadron. The article discusses how a hacker can hack into your house and open up the security system, dead bolt, and get in without even being there. That's a scary thought and although it was done truly for bragging rights at a Las Vegas hackers convention, that doesn't make anyone feel safer by a long-shot.

If you have a smart home which is set up to run the most efficient way, then there are systems to control everything, once your home is wired up, it comes alive, like "HAL" and can take care of nearly all your needs for climate control, lighting, energy saving, internet access, cooking, refrigeration, and you name it. It can upload information, patches, and new software, and it can alert you, where ever you are by remote if there is an intruder. Unless someone were to shut off that function of course, meaning you might turn it off yourself or maybe someone else you don't know might do so by remote.

If you remember the movie Poltergeist you might find that mild to what mischief your smart home can come up with when a hacker is running the program. Remember, these days nothing is safe. The Pentagon is hacked into by the Chinese, Credit Card Companies and Banks by hackers, and now they are getting into mobile payments on smart phones too. Hackers have taken over the navigation system in Super Yachts, hacked into UAV military drone video feeds, and WiFi systems from 60-miles away on top of a wayward mountain - so tell me, just how safe do you really believe your future smart house might be?

But don't worry you say, you have the best computer security, secret passwords, and system money can buy - really - like all those other things I mentioned and all those multi-national conglomerate corporations with greater revenue than the GDPs of most nations didn't? Okay, I guess my warning has fallen on deaf ears - my mistake - you must be right, but I hope you will sleep good tonight. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Internet Security Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

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