As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to gain traction and more connected devices come to market, security becomes a major concern. Businesses are increasingly being breached by attackers via vulnerable web-facing assets1; what is there to keep the same from happening to consumers? The short answer is nothing. Already, broad-reaching hacks of connected devices have been recorded2 and will continue to happen if manufacturers do not bolster their security efforts now. In this light, Veracode’s research team examined six Internet-connected consumer devices and found unsettling results.
We investigated a selection of always-on consumer IoT devices to understand the security posture of each product. The result: product manufacturers weren’t focused enough on security and privacy, as a design priority, putting consumers at risk for an attack or physical intrusion.
Our team performed a set of uniform tests across all devices and organized the findings into four different domains: user-facing cloud services, back-end cloud services, mobile application interface, and device debugging interfaces. The results showed that all but one device exhibited vulnerabilities across most categories. It’s clear there is a need to perform security reviews of device architecture and accompanying applications to minimize the risk to users.
Further, the study presents results of a threat modeling exercise, discussing the potential impact to users under a number of hypothetical breach scenarios. For example, since the Ubi fails to secure its communications, if attackers were to gain access to eavesdrop on the traffic of Ubi’s cloud service – for instance, through a network breach – they would be able to see the full contents of every Ubi user’s voice commands and responses, giving the attackers a clear view into the usage patterns of people interacting with devices in their homes and offices.