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Security Guide

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You may have noticed a recent trend in TV commercials monitor the temperature of the home, turn lights on or off, or
for cars. Many car manufacturers are focusing on technology- remotely keep an eye on the family dog by tapping into a web-
centric special features. One of the most popular add-ons right cam feed. While all of these capabilities seem like a great idea
now is adding the capability to turn your car into an Inter- and add convenience to daily life, the trend of outfitting every
net hot spot. Sure, allowing your friends to check their social object with Internet access may prove to be a hazardous, even
media updates using your car’s Wi-Fi sounds pretty cool. But dangerous, proposition.
there may be some unintended risks associated with incorpo-
rating this capability into your car—or any device, for that Internet of Threats
matter. What if one of your passengers used that Wi-Fi con- You might already be aware of some of the types of security
nection to access your car’s brakes? threats on the Internet. If you tune in to the evening news
on any given night, you will see stories about data stolen
Internet of Things (IoT)

You may have already heard of
the Internet of Things (IoT), or the
idea that objects are becoming
connected to the Internet so they
can interact with other devices,
applications, or services. Count-
less companies are working to
capitalize on the possibilities of
new “smart” products designed to
automatically communicate with
other devices and exchange data
with little or no intervention by
the user. The trend of developing
new Internet-enabled devices is so
widespread that some estimates
place the number of IoT devices at
roughly 26 billion by 2020. 8
But what can all of these
new smart devices be used for?
Take home automation, for ex-
ample. The home automation
market is growing rapidly with
new Internet-enabled devices
like thermostats, smoke detec-
tors, light bulbs, surveillance
cameras, and door locks gaining
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in popularity. These devices al-
low a homeowner to remotely
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