In our latest Hot Topic video, Mike Pearlstein, Founder and CEO of Fusion Computing, discusses the things you can do to secure yourself as you receive tons of Wi-Fi-connected toys and gadgets over the holidays.
According to Mike, the most important thing to ask yourself is, do you trust this device before I add it to my Wi-Fi?
For example, PlayStation and other toys from known manufacturers are probably safe to connect to your Wi-Fi.
But when it comes to something that you may not know if you can trust, like a brand that you don’t know and it wants to talk to your Wi-Fi, you should have second thoughts.
If you don’t know very much about this gadget or where it comes from, and there’s not enough information available to you online, you should have some trust concerns that this device could potentially do awkward things when it is connected to your Wi-Fi network.
So, a decision needs to be made, and your decision-making process can go like this:
- I understand this product, and I’m going to accept this risk.
- I don’t trust this product, and I’m not going to accept this risk.
- I’m going to mitigate this risk. The mitigation of that risk is very simple, really, and involves setting up a guest Wi-Fi network in your home and then connecting these untrusted devices to that guest Wi-Fi network; that way, if the device decides to do something goofy, you’ve mitigated the risk as it can’t access the rest of our devices.
If you want to learn more or gain more tips on how to secure yourself during the holidays, please reach out.
