As this Christmas season the sales of smart toys doubled from last year, security analysts are worried that it might put the children/users at risk as strangers can contact the smart toy owners through various security flaws.
Well, as manufacturers are being constantly urged by governments to improve the cyber hygiene of their devices before they put them on sale, only a few seem to be listening.
As nothing much can be done from the manufactures side by the consumers, here’s a list of security measures which can be followed by them while buying a smart toy-
Keep a check on the description while you’re buying the toy and carefully go through the fine print before you make a physical or online purchase. Better to know what the toy does and how does it interact with the child playing with it.
Check for the online reviews and see if they are any security concerns against the manufacture. Agree that it’s difficult to buy a product when the trend of paid reviews is going on full swing. But at least the reviews give us an option to think deep based on the average data summed-up from the reviews.
If you need to buy a specific smart toy due to your child’s pressure, then make sure that you submit the least amount of personal data while setting up an account for the child. And always ensure that you set a strong password to ensure that your account is well protected from prying eyes.
Just keep a track of the activity while your child is playing with the smart toy- specifically when the messages are being sent and received. Never leave the child unsupervised while they are playing with the smart toy.
When the toy is in the idle state i.e. the child is not playing with it, make sure that it is switched off completely to ward off any kind of cyber troubles due to hidden vulnerabilities in the smart toys.
