On Tuesday, thousands of schoolchildren around the country marked Safer Internet Day. This year, the theme was around being AI aware, “safe, smart and in control”, encouraging children, parents and teachers to think about how the shiny new technology is shaping children’s experiences online.
It is apt that this comes in the weeks after AI hit the headlines for reasons that included an AI chatbot being used to digitally undress women, including children, for the amusement of anonymous users on social media. It is an important topic and one that we should be discussing with young people before they, too, walk themselves into a privacy disaster.
Each year, Safer Internet Day takes a topic around online safety and gets everyone talking. But while we may nod along to the internet safety messages, you might wonder how many adults are taking the advice.
Some treat AI chatbots like a personal therapist, handing over a trove of data. Or perhaps they indulge in viral trends such as using AI to turn a photo into a superhero, or creating a cartoon caricature of them based on a photo and what the chatbot knows about their life. It seems harmless, but in the end, it is all giving away data.
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While AI may be the current bogeyman, there are other pressing issues that we should be mindful of. How many of us are handing over personal data with little or no thought, and in some cases without realising the extent of it? Probably more than you realise.
Take the smart home, for example. Smart home systems can be useful. They give us control over our homes even when we are far away from them, controlling lighting, keeping an eye on visitors, alerting us to possible intruders. They are right in the heart of our homes, and yet plenty of us are more than willing to roll the dice on their security. If we don’t make the right choices, they can also allow intruders to slip by without us noticing, past the careful defences you have constructed and into the heart of your home.
Your simple, everyday internet-connected device may be leaking data to hackers without you ever being aware of the danger. That bargain wifi-connected light bulb or smart plug that seemed like such a good deal at the time may come with security vulnerabilities that can be used to launch a phishing attack against you, giving hackers a way into your personal life that you didn’t expect.
Your unpatched fridge could be part of a zombie army of devices taking down your favourite services. You might as well leave the front door open and invite them in. It may seem like the stuff of scare stories and sci-fi, but it happens, and it could happen to any of us.
A warning from Grant Thornton earlier this week makes for interesting reading. It warned that anything from your TV streaming device (aka the “dodgy box”) to cheap, poorly secured smart home devices can be compromised quickly, silently, and used to launch large-scale attacks.
[ Zombie devices not so smart if they allow hackers into your homeOpens in new window ]
That was seen in the recent Kimwolf botnet attack, when a zombie army of compromised Android-enabled televisions and TV streaming devices bombarded targets with requests to take them offline.
Grant Thornton warned that individuals are increasingly being targeted through home devices and, once attackers have access, they can profile the household by monitoring online traffic to launch more targeted and convincing phishing attacks.
In other words, you don’t have to be visiting questionable websites and downloading software recklessly to be hit; sticking with default passwords for devices, using old software and failing to patch flaws in internet-connected devices can all provide hackers with a way in, giving them information that could make the phishing attack much more believable.
It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking everything will be fine and that it won’t happen to us. That false sense of security allows hackers to thrive. But as the Kimwolf incident shows, all it takes is a bit of lax security and your devices could be working against you rather than for you.
Smart homes aren’t so smart if the people who are supposed to be running them don’t understand the risks. Sticking with reputable brands, changing the default passwords on all smart devices and routers, and keeping up to date with software updates are effective ways of shoring up your defences.
We need to educate children on safer use of the internet and online services. But perhaps we should – quite literally – look closer to home too.
