How to Protect Your Smart Home From Hackers

The incidents have been unsettling: a homeowner’s thermostat raised to 90 degrees by hackers with no way to turn it down, baby monitors used by online stalkers to spy on families, webcams and other home devices hijacked to help take down corporate computer networks.

Thanks to the boom in “smart home” devices, we now live with vastly more connected gadgets: internet-linked TVs; camera-equipped doorbells; online thermostats, door locks and lightbulbs; web security cameras; and even refrigerators, dishwashers and ovens with Wi-Fi. Each online link provides a tempting target for a hacker.

The problem isn’t simply that somebody can hack a refrigerator or dishwasher, of course. It’s that once a bad actor breaches one of these devices, he or she potentially could control every other device on your home network. What’s more, these gadgets pose privacy concerns since their cameras, microphones and motion sensors could be used to monitor you.

As sales of smart-home devices continue to grow, consumers need to be cautious. Here are some questions and answers about how to thwart digital vandals.

How big a cybersecurity risk are smart-home devices?

Every new digital device introduced into your home comes with security risks. Most are connected to your Wi-Fi network and many come with an app that links them to your phone via Wi-Fi or your cellphone network. All of these are potential pathways for a hack—and the device with the weakest security could provide a way for hackers to reach the others.

In other words, you are only as safe as your weakest device.

“A lot of these devices don’t even have basic security features or protections,” says Wendy Frank , U.S. cyber internet-of-things leader for consulting firm Deloitte. Most lack virus protection and other security software that is common in personal computers and phones. Many don’t offer automatic updates of software or firmware (the coding that controls devices’ basic functions) from the manufacturer to fix security flaws, also standard with phones and PCs.

What kind of damage could hackers inflict?

Smart-home devices can be exploited to hack into the owners’ private information or attack a website.

In 2016, hackers controlling hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices, believed to include webcams, smart TVs, printers and even baby monitors, unleashed several massive attacks that knocked out dozens of popular websites, including those of Twitter, Netflix , Amazon and Visa. Such “distributed denial-of-service” attacks instruct the devices to send millions of requests in unison to overwhelm a computer system, causing it to shut down.

Considering the enormous number of U.S. homes with smart devices—more than 60 million—and their low levels of security precautions, they are likely to continue to be tempting targets for all kinds of attacks, says Yuvraj Agarwal , an associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. It’s “a disaster waiting to happen,” he says.

Among the potential risks experts cite: People could be locked out of their house by hackers who tapped the security system seeking a ransom. Burglars could listen in over smart speakers to figure out when you aren’t home. Smart lightbulbs could be used as a way to break into personal information on a phone.

What steps can we take to protect devices from hackers?

First, make sure your Wi-Fi router is secure—the router is the key to your digital home. Use the website or app that controls your router to check that it isn’t using the default password—that same password could have been given to many other customers. Give the router a unique password you use only for that device.

Next, ensure that the router’s security feature called a firewall is turned on, and that it is using encryption called WPA2 or the newer WPA3. And turn on the control to allow automatic software updates, if provided.

What about settings on the smart devices themselves?

As with routers, don’t use the default password they came with. Instead, use a different password for each device, so that if someone were able to figure out, say, the password for your smart doorbell, he or she wouldn’t have access to everything else.

And if a device allows two-factor authentication, be sure to use it. This means that to log in to the device you will need to type in a code sent by text or email, or generated by a device called an authenticator, in addition to the password. That extra step, while annoying, could keep out a hacker.

Is it risky to put smart devices on the same home Wi-Fi network you use for your computer and phone?

Yes. Someone could hack into one of your smart devices as a way to break into your Wi-Fi router, and from there could attack your computer, phone and everything else on the same network.

Instead, set up a guest network on your router that has its own unique password and use that network to connect your smart devices. Many routers include such a second network, but you may need to take a few steps to turn it on. Guest networks generally are sealed off from the main Wi-Fi network, so a hacker couldn’t leap from it to the main network.

When shopping for these devices, how do you know which are safer than others?

Check the makers’ security policies online before buying. Look for manufacturers’ statements that they periodically send security updates to the devices and encrypt the communications between the devices and their cloud service. Seek out products that offer two-factor authentication.

Are there certain types of smart devices to avoid?

Hundreds of types of internet-connected gadgets are sold online by innumerable companies, often at very low prices. “If it costs $5 for a smart plug, most of it is not going toward thinking about security and privacy first,” says Carnegie Mellon’s Agarwal, who does research on smart-device security.

Stick to devices from mainstream makers, since they are more likely to take security considerations seriously and spend the time and money to periodically update these features, he says. These companies don’t want to risk tarnishing their brands with products of questionable security.

What else can consumers do?

Limit how many smart devices you own—the more you have means more pathways for hackers to try to break in. Get fewer, more-secure devices rather than having insecure, cheaper devices in the whole home, says Deloitte’s Frank.

While you might find an Alexa or Google digital assistant useful on the kitchen counter, avoid putting one in a home office where you might talk about confidential financial or work-related topics that could be a juicy reward for a hacker, she adds.

Moreover, disable functions you don’t use or need on the devices, such as the camera on a digital assistant or the ability of the device to save recordings of your voice commands. “Having those turned on creates a larger attack surface” for a hacker, Frank says.

Do proprietary home networking systems provide more security than plain Wi-Fi?

While networks such as Google Home, Apple HomeKit and Amazon Alexa likely have enhanced security, in most cases they also use your home Wi-Fi to connect to their cloud services that run the networks. That raises the same security concerns as relying solely on Wi-Fi, Agarwal says.

Why don’t device makers build more security into their products?

A big factor is cost, says Deloitte’s Frank. Adding the level of security found in a laptop computer to a $15 internet-controlled lightbulb could make its price uncompetitive.

Moreover, she says, device makers want their products to appeal to ordinary consumers, so “they need to prioritise convenience, prioritise ease of use. Security often takes somewhat of a back seat.”

What is the smart-device industry doing to prevent hacks?

One effort is an industry standard called Matter from a consortium that includes Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung and others, which works to make networked home products interoperate with each other. The Matter standard has security and privacy safeguards built in, says the group behind the standard. Products that meet the standard are being rolled out gradually and can carry its logo .

What is the government doing?

A project by the Biden administration aims to have makers of digital home devices label their products to indicate their security and privacy protections. Called the Cyber Trust Mark , it’s akin in some ways to the government’s Energy Star certification for the efficiency of home appliances.

The voluntary program, overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, is still under formation; the White House said last year it expected it to be in place in 2024. Under the proposal, device makers seeking to use the label would need to certify that their products meet certain standards by having them tested by an accredited lab. Agarwal says he has provided input to the government effort based on a Carnegie Mellon program to devise a similar label for smart products.

PARIS —Paris has long been a byword for luxurious living. The traditional components of the upscale home, from parquet floors to elaborate moldings, have their origins here. Yet settling down in just the right address in this low-rise, high-density city may be the greatest luxury of all.

Tradition reigns supreme in Paris real estate, where certain conditions seem set in stone—the western half of the city, on either side of the Seine, has long been more expensive than the east. But in the fashion world’s capital, parts of the housing market are also subject to shifting fads. In the trendy, hilly northeast, a roving cool factor can send prices in this year’s hip neighborhood rising, while last year’s might seem like a sudden bargain.

This week, with the opening of the Olympic Games and the eyes of the world turned toward Paris, The Wall Street Journal looks at the most expensive and desirable areas in the City of Light.

The Most Expensive Arrondissement: the 6th

Known for historic architecture, elegant apartment houses and bohemian street cred, the 6th Arrondissement is Paris’s answer to Manhattan’s West Village. Like its New York counterpart, the 6th’s starving-artist days are long behind it. But the charm that first wooed notable residents like Gertrude Stein and Jean-Paul Sartre is still largely intact, attracting high-minded tourists and deep-pocketed homeowners who can afford its once-edgy, now serene atmosphere.

Le Breton George V Notaires, a Paris notary with an international clientele, says the 6th consistently holds the title of most expensive arrondissement among Paris’s 20 administrative districts, and 2023 was no exception. Last year, average home prices reached $1,428 a square foot—almost 30% higher than the Paris average of $1,100 a square foot.

According to Meilleurs Agents, the Paris real estate appraisal company, the 6th is also home to three of the city’s five most expensive streets. Rue de Furstemberg, a secluded loop between Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Seine, comes in on top, with average prices of $2,454 a square foot as of March 2024.

For more than two decades, Kyle Branum, a 51-year-old attorney, and Kimberly Branum, a 60-year-old retired CEO, have been regular visitors to Paris, opting for apartment rentals and ultimately an ownership interest in an apartment in the city’s 7th Arrondissement, a sedate Left Bank district known for its discreet atmosphere and plutocratic residents.

“The 7th was the only place we stayed,” says Kimberly, “but we spent most of our time in the 6th.”

In 2022, inspired by the strength of the dollar, the Branums decided to fulfil a longstanding dream of buying in Paris. Working with Paris Property Group, they opted for a 1,465-square-foot, three-bedroom in a building dating to the 17th century on a side street in the 6th Arrondissement. They paid $2.7 million for the unit and then spent just over $1 million on the renovation, working with Franco-American visual artist Monte Laster, who also does interiors.

The couple, who live in Santa Barbara, Calif., plan to spend about three months a year in Paris, hosting children and grandchildren, and cooking after forays to local food markets. Their new kitchen, which includes a French stove from luxury appliance brand Lacanche, is Kimberly’s favourite room, she says.

Another American, investor Ashley Maddox, 49, is also considering relocating.

In 2012, the longtime Paris resident bought a dingy, overstuffed 1,765-square-foot apartment in the 6th and started from scratch. She paid $2.5 million and undertook a gut renovation and building improvements for about $800,000. A centrepiece of the home now is the one-time salon, which was turned into an open-plan kitchen and dining area where Maddox and her three children tend to hang out, American-style. Just outside her door are some of the city’s best-known bakeries and cheesemongers, and she is a short walk from the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Left Bank’s premier green space.

“A lot of the majesty of the city is accessible from here,” she says. “It’s so central, it’s bananas.” Now that two of her children are going away to school, she has listed the four-bedroom apartment with Varenne for $5 million.

The Most Expensive Neighbourhoods: Notre-Dame and Invalides

Garrow Kedigian is moving up in the world of Parisian real estate by heading south of the Seine.

During the pandemic, the Canada-born, New York-based interior designer reassessed his life, he says, and decided “I’m not going to wait any longer to have a pied-à-terre in Paris.”

He originally selected a 1,130-square-foot one-bedroom in the trendy 9th Arrondissement, an up-and-coming Right Bank district just below Montmartre. But he soon realised it was too small for his extended stays, not to mention hosting guests from out of town.

After paying about $1.6 million in 2022 and then investing about $55,000 in new decor, he put the unit up for sale in early 2024 and went house-shopping a second time. He ended up in the Invalides quarter of the 7th Arrondissement in the shadow of one Paris’s signature monuments, the golden-domed Hôtel des Invalides, which dates to the 17th century and is fronted by a grand esplanade.

His new neighbourhood vies for Paris’s most expensive with the Notre-Dame quarter in the 4th Arrondissement, centred on a few islands in the Seine behind its namesake cathedral. According to Le Breton, home prices in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood were $1,818 a square foot in 2023, followed by $1,568 a square foot in Invalides.

After breaking even on his Right Bank one-bedroom, Kedigian paid $2.4 million for his new 1,450-square-foot two-bedroom in a late 19th-century building. It has southern exposures, rounded living-room windows and “gorgeous floors,” he says. Kedigian, who bought the new flat through Junot Fine Properties/Knight Frank, plans to spend up to $435,000 on a renovation that will involve restoring the original 12-foot ceiling height in many of the rooms, as well as rescuing the ceilings’ elaborate stucco detailing. He expects to finish in 2025.

Over in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood, Belles demeures de France/Christie’s recently sold a 2,370-square-foot, four-bedroom home for close to the asking price of about $8.6 million, or about $3,630 a square foot. Listing agent Marie-Hélène Lundgreen says this places the unit near the very top of Paris luxury real estate, where prime homes typically sell between $2,530 and $4,040 a square foot.

The Most Expensive Suburb: Neuilly-sur-Seine

The Boulevard Périphérique, the 22-mile ring road that surrounds Paris and its 20 arrondissements, was once a line in the sand for Parisians, who regarded the French capital’s numerous suburbs as something to drive through on their way to and from vacation. The past few decades have seen waves of gentrification beyond the city’s borders, upgrading humble or industrial districts to the north and east into prime residential areas. And it has turned Neuilly-sur-Seine, just northwest of the city, into a luxury compound of first resort.

In 2023, Neuilly’s average home price of $1,092 a square foot made the leafy, stately community Paris’s most expensive suburb.

Longtime residents, Alain and Michèle Bigio, decided this year is the right time to list their 7,730-square-foot, four-bedroom townhouse on a gated Neuilly street.

The couple, now in their mid 70s, completed the home in 1990, two years after they purchased a small parcel of garden from the owners next door for an undisclosed amount. Having relocated from a white-marble château outside Paris, the couple echoed their previous home by using white- and cream-coloured stone in the new four-story build. The Bigios, who will relocate just back over the border in the 16th Arrondissement, have listed the property with Emile Garcin Propriétés for $14.7 million.

The couple raised two adult children here and undertook upgrades in their empty-nester years—most recently, an indoor pool in the basement and a new elevator.

The cool, pale interiors give way to dark and sardonic images in the former staff’s quarters in the basement where Alain works on his hobby—surreal and satirical paintings, whose risqué content means that his wife prefers they stay downstairs. “I’m not a painter,” he says. “But I paint.”

The Trendiest Arrondissement: the 9th

French interior designer Julie Hamon is theatre royalty. Her grandfather was playwright Jean Anouilh, a giant of 20th-century French literature, and her sister is actress Gwendoline Hamon. The 52-year-old, who divides her time between Paris and the U.K., still remembers when the city’s 9th Arrondissement, where she and her husband bought their 1,885-square-foot duplex in 2017, was a place to have fun rather than put down roots. Now, the 9th is the place to do both.

The 9th, a largely 19th-century district, is Paris at its most urban. But what it lacks in parks and other green spaces, it makes up with nightlife and a bustling street life. Among Paris’s gentrifying districts, which have been transformed since 2000 from near-slums to the brink of luxury, the 9th has emerged as the clear winner. According to Le Breton, average 2023 home prices here were $1,062 a square foot, while its nearest competitors for the cool crown, the 10th and the 11th, have yet to break $1,011 a square foot.

A co-principal in the Bobo Design Studio, Hamon—whose gut renovation includes a dramatic skylight, a home cinema and air conditioning—still seems surprised at how far her arrondissement has come. “The 9th used to be well known for all the theatres, nightclubs and strip clubs,” she says. “But it was never a place where you wanted to live—now it’s the place to be.”

With their youngest child about to go to college, she and her husband, 52-year-old entrepreneur Guillaume Clignet, decided to list their Paris home for $3.45 million and live in London full-time. Propriétés Parisiennes/Sotheby’s is handling the listing, which has just gone into contract after about six months on the market.

The 9th’s music venues were a draw for 44-year-old American musician and piano dealer, Ronen Segev, who divides his time between Miami and a 1,725-square-foot, two-bedroom in the lower reaches of the arrondissement. Aided by Paris Property Group, Segev purchased the apartment at auction during the pandemic, sight unseen, for $1.69 million. He spent $270,000 on a renovation, knocking down a wall to make a larger salon suitable for home concerts.

During the Olympics, Segev is renting out the space for about $22,850 a week to attendees of the Games. Otherwise, he prefers longer-term sublets to visiting musicians for $32,700 a month.

Most Exclusive Address: Avenue Junot

Hidden in the hilly expanses of the 18th Arrondissement lies a legendary street that, for those in the know, is the city’s most exclusive address. Avenue Junot, a bucolic tree-lined lane, is a fairy-tale version of the city, separate from the gritty bustle that surrounds it.

Homes here rarely come up for sale, and, when they do, they tend to be off-market, or sold before they can be listed. Martine Kuperfis—whose Paris-based Junot Group real-estate company is named for the street—says the most expensive units here are penthouses with views over the whole of the city.

In 2021, her agency sold a 3,230-square-foot triplex apartment, with a 1,400-square-foot terrace, for $8.5 million. At about $2,630 a square foot, that is three times the current average price in the whole of the 18th.

Among its current Junot listings is a 1930s 1,220-square-foot townhouse on the avenue’s cobblestone extension, with an asking price of $2.8 million.