Smart home appliances and internet of things (
IoT) devices are becoming part of daily life for many. You may even have one of these devices near you right now and that are likely connected to the internet in some way. While they may be decent products at large, many fail horribly when it comes to security. UK publication
Which? bought 11 different smart doorbells from Amazon and eBay and found that they all failed simple security tests. This means if you have one of these devices, you could be at risk for attack for attacks from nefarious intruders.
You would think (and would want) the thing securing your home to be secure over the network, but that just is not the case with several brands. While brands such as Ring may pass the tests, those brands also call for higher prices versus these low-cost finds on eBay and Amazon. As they say though, you get what you pay for, as these are just a few of the doorbells that were found to be vulnerable to a variety of attacks:
As it turns out, many people turned to these brands as Ring or Nest was either too expensive or not worth the investment, as several of these have 5-star reviews or were found at the top of best-selling lists on Amazon. Many of them -- like the Victure -- were either “phoning home” to China with unencrypted data (sending info like your Wi-Fi name and password) or were vulnerable to local exploits allowing attackers to freely burgle your home if they wanted. The Qihoo device was easy to remove from its physical base with a simple SIM ejection tool, and its cloud recording were uploaded to an unencrypted server.
If you are out shopping for a doorbell, perhaps a name brand is best and is worth the investment. Reviews may not tell the whole story, such as device security. After all, it is your house you are securing, so some extra cash up front could be worth it in the long run. You can get the
cheapest Ring doorbell for just $69.99 right now (30% off) and pay $3 a month for cloud recording (but you can stay with the free version as well). You can also take a look at the other
sales going on here for doorbells that are security nightmares waiting to happen.
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