At last the United Kingdom’s Cyber Watchdog “The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC)” seems to have reacted to a major cyber threat concern posed by the toys and baby monitors sold to families in Britain. The NCSC has warned that all companies manufacturing the said internet connected devices should ensure that the devices are secure enough when it comes to dealing with threats existing in the current cyber landscape.
NCSC has also issued new guidelines in this regard and asked the manufactures to scrutinize their devices on all security aspects before selling them to British families.
Vulnerabilities already exposed include one which allows the cyber crooks to obtain audio conversations taking place before the baby monitors or intercepting and manipulating the info about the position and temperature of an infant on an activity tracker.
NCSC which is a part of GCHQ has recently released an educational video on how hackers could manipulate the settings of a “smart toy bear” having a security fault and on how they could proceed in obtaining sensitive information.
Note- A talking dinosaur which allowed the voice, data and video traffic to be intercepted was used in the video.
“Recent, high provide cyber attacks putting people’s data and privacy at risk include attacks on smartwatches, CCTV cameras, and children’s toys”, said a spokesperson from the government-run cybersecurity organization.
Readers of Cybersecurity Insiders have to notify a fact over here that the warning comes just after few days when UK and US jointly alerted the world about a technical alert saying millions of unsecured routers operating across the globe are vulnerable to hackers backed by Russian Intelligence.
In the next three years or so, UK is expected to see a rise in the adoption of internet-connected devices which might reach a figure of 420 million by 2021. But manufacturers are rarely seen in advertising the security features to families investing in smart toys, monitors and virtual assistants,
Now, NCSC wants to change this scenario by issuing new guidelines to the OEMs. They want them to keep their products up-to-date on all security aspect so that it makes things easier for buyers to purchase.
