Is a smart and secure home a more vulnerable one?

The internet provides a treasure trove of information, held behind relatively weak security, for cyber criminals to take advantage of.

The majority of individuals whose identities and financial information are for sale on the dark web have no idea that their security has even been breached.

When we buy smart devices for the home, how many of us change the default or set a separate password for any administrator functions? Even if we do amend the default passwords, we often use the same ones as those used for more sensitive accounts, such as email or banks. By hacking through security simply designed to protect the information on the contents in your fridge, criminals can gain access to your finances.

One particularly sensitive area is home security. Wireless burglar alarms and CCTV cameras installed in many homes are linked to a network. There are search engines enabling you to search for alarms connected to the internet. Motion sensors can then be disabled and alarms switched off. Those still using “admin” as the user name and password provide even easier access, but there are usually sufficient examples of any one system to make breaking the user name and password conventions relatively straightforward.

In addition to alarms, CCTV cameras mounted inside peoples’ homes as part of security systems can make those homes far more insecure. As well as providing a view of the interior to facilitate burglars, they also provide unparalleled opportunities for cybercrime and ransomware demands. Clients have had ransomware demands for the return of CCTV footage taken of their homes, including a camera with a view into the bathroom. What is worse than the demand, however, is the knowledge that someone else has had control of viewing your private spaces.

Tell-tale signs

Whilst the hacking of baby monitors may result in a strange voice coming from the monitor, the signs of CCTV camera hacking are more subtle. You may notice the camera moving to follow you around the room or a red light blinking on the camera when the alarm is not activated. You may also be able to see that the times and dates of data transferred from the camera do not correspond with times and dates when the alarm was monitoring any movement.

How to keep your home secure?

Emma Banister Dean, our cyber security expert, suggests these very simple precautions:

• Always change the user name and password from the default options.

• Diarise updating passwords on a regular basis

• Do not use the same user name and password as those. used for other apps or devices, particularly not email or bank accounts.

• Do not use public WiFi to access your security accounts.

• Monitor the dates and times of activity for unusual patterns.

Keep your information safe and secure

Royds Withy King have created Life Safe ® a legacy management portal where you can store all your legal documents and manage your wealth securely. You can store Wills, investment portfolios, details of chattels, digital assets and passwords. Our dual PIN system ensures that your files - whether business, personal or legal - won’t be compromised.

10 STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

Dave Eagle, Head of Client Solutions & Innovations, Royds Withy King

As part of our Year Ahead programme, we have worked with our network of technology influencers and decision makers to identify the top ten strategic technology trends for 2019. These trends have the potential to drive both significant disruption and deliver significant opportunity. Business leaders must evaluate these trends to identify opportunities, counter threats and create competitive advantage.

1 - Autonomous things: robots, drones and autonomous vehicles use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate functions previously performed by humans to deliver advanced behaviours that interact more naturally with their surroundings and people.

2 - Augmented analytics focuses on a specific area of augmented intelligence, using machine learning (ML) to transform how analytics content is developed, consumed and shared, thus eliminating the need for professional data scientists.

3- AI-driven development provides the developer with an ecosystem of AI algorithms, models, and development tools tailored to integrating AI capabilities into one solution.

By 2022, at least 40 percent of new application development projects will have AI codevelopers on their team.

4 - Digital twins refers to the digital representation of a real-world entity or system.

5 - Empowered edge refers to endpoint devices used by people or embedded in the world around us. Edge computing describes a computing topology in which information processing, and content collection and delivery, are placed closer to these endpoints.

By 2020, there will be more than 20 billion connected sensors; endpoints and digital twins will exist for potentially billions of things. Organisations will implement digital twins simply at first. They will evolve them over time, improving their ability to collect and visualise the right data, apply the right analytics and respond effectively to business objectives.

6 - Immersive experience: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) are changing the way in which people perceive the digital world. This combined shift in perception and interaction models leads to the future immersive user experience.

7 - Blockchain promises to reshape industries by enabling trust, providing transparency and reducing friction across business ecosystems by potentially lowering costs, reducing transaction settlement times and improving cash flow. Today, trust is placed in banks, clearing houses, governments and many other institutions. This adds delays and friction costs (commissions, fees and the time value of money) to transactions. Blockchain provides an alternative trust mode and removes the need for central authorities in arbitrating transactions.

8 - Smart spaces are physical or digital environments in which humans and technology-enabled systems interact in increasingly open, connected, coordinated and intelligent ecosystems. Multiple elements come together in a smart space to create a more immersive, interactive and automated experience for a target set of people and industry scenarios.

9 - Digital ethics and privacy is a growing concern for individuals, organisations and governments. People are increasingly concerned about how their personal information is being used by organisations in both the public and private sector. The backlash will only increase for organisations that are not proactively addressing these concerns.

10 - Quantum computing (QC) is a type of non-classical computing that operates on the quantum state of subatomic particles, e.g. electrons and ions, that represent information as elements denoted as quantum bits (qubits). Quantum computers excel with problems too complex for a traditional approach or where algorithms would take too long to find a solution. Industries such as automotive, financial, insurance, life sciences, military and research organisations have the most to gain from the advancements in QC.

In the life sciences sector, QC could be used to model molecular interactions at atomic levels to accelerate time to market for new cancer-treating drugs.