From smart speakers to doorbell cameras, connected devices have quietly woven themselves into daily life. They play music, switch on lights, tell the time, and keep an eye on the front door. But the very systems many of us rely on for convenience are now attracting the attention of criminals.
Briefings from cybersecurity experts, including the National Cyber Security Centre, reveal a worrying development. While laptops and phones are still targeted, attackers are now putting far more effort into the devices scattered across our hallways, kitchens and living rooms. And, as our homes become more connected, the number of potential weak points multiplies.
The unexpected weak spot: your router
The home router has quietly become a major point of entry for cyber-criminals. Phones and laptops tend to update automatically; routers often don’t. In fact:
- Many households are still using factory-set admin passwords
- Others are running firmware that hasn’t been refreshed since installation.
Criminal groups have adapted their tactics accordingly. Vast automated systems sweep the internet nonstop, looking for routers with known vulnerabilities. When they find one, attackers rarely need sophisticated tools, they simply exploit settings that were never changed.
Smart-home devices add to the problem. Every gadget, from a speaker to a thermostat, creates another route into the home network. If even one of those devices is out-of-date or poorly secured, it can give an attacker a way to move further inside. And once they have a foothold, they often don’t need to do anything dramatic: monitoring traffic, probing other devices, or quietly gathering data can all happen without obvious signs.
Why smart homes are struggling to keep up
The problem isn’t that smart-home gadgets are inherently unsafe, it’s that they age quickly, and most people don’t check them as often as they do their phones. A smart TV that still works perfectly may not have received a security patch for years, while cheaper devices bought online may never have met UK security standards in the first place.
Many households also connect every device to the same Wi-Fi network, often using a single password. If a criminal manages to compromise one gadget, that makes it far easier for them to try their luck with everything else on the network.
Strengthening your home network doesn’t need to be complicated
The good news is that most of these risks can be reduced with a few simple habits.
- The best place to start is with the router itself. Updating its software, changing the default login and switching off features like remote access can dramatically cut the number of routes attackers can use. Most routers take only a few minutes to update, yet those updates often contain critical security fixes.
- Separating your devices can make a real difference. Many routers offer the option to create a “guest” or “IoT” network. Putting smart-home gadgets on their own Wi-Fi stops a compromised doorbell, speaker or thermostat from easily reaching more sensitive devices like phones, laptops or work computers.
- While it’s tempting to install a gadget and forget about it, turning on automatic updates, where available, goes a long way. A device that updates itself quietly in the background is far less likely to become the weak link in the chain.
Every home has its own way of managing practical jobs — testing smoke alarms, clearing gutters, filing paperwork. Checking smart-home settings now needs to join that list.
Doing a quick review every few months is usually enough:
- Are all the devices on your network ones you still use?
- Are their apps up to date and have you switched on 2FA?
- Are there old gadgets quietly plugged in somewhere that you’ve forgotten about?
Furthermore, cyber-criminals often rely on password reuse. Using a password manager and avoiding the same password across devices helps stop “credential stuffing”, where attackers try leaked passwords from previous breaches to unlock new accounts.
Staying secure isn’t about fear. It’s about small, sensible adjustments, and a network that gets the same routine care as the rest of the home.
