Research Reveals Alarming Privacy, Security Threats in Smart Homes

A team led by researchers at Northeastern University and Spain's IMDEA Networks uncovered security and privacy issues within Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes. Northeastern's David Choffnes said these appliances can "allow nearly any company to learn what devices are in your home, to know when you are home, and learn where your home is." The researchers investigated local network interactions between 93 IoT devices and mobile applications, highlighting the unintentional disclosure of personally identifiable information by devices within local networks using standard protocols like Universal Plug and Play or multicast Domain Name System. Vijay Prakash at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering said a smart home can be identified from a media access control address, a universally unique identifier, and a unique device name.