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In pictures: How to combat ‘IoT’ toy hacks
Trend Micro’s ‘Internet of Things’ toy guide helps keep your children safe from online privacy and security risks
Personal data: Some smart toy devices require personal information about child, including name, age, gender and home address, resulting in criminals accessing such data. Trend Micro advises to know what your child shares online and remind them to cautious with what they share, plus review and adjust the privacy settings on the device. This means, activating settings which can block certain people or websites from viewing your child’s information. It is also useful to read the manufacturing privacy policy to know where the given data is stored. (Fisher-Price)
Whereabouts: Monitoring your child’s current location in real-time is easy with GPS-enabled devices, but there is a potential this could be hacked. Recently, a GPS tracker for kids was reported to have a bug that allowed hackers to track the location and even pose as the child’s parent. To avoid this, Trend Micro says to learn about the device’s location settings and adjust how specific the location tracking is, such as changing the settings to only track the city and not the exact address.
Visual data: Many IoT toys have built-in cameras making it easy to share photos and videos with other people, even people you hardly know. Trend Micro reveals buyers should consider if their child really needs a camera, and if so to manage the settings so the camera only records whilst in use. Plus, parents should also supervise their child when sharing images or videos and to use avatars as their profile photo. (V-tech)
Audio data: Some devices can listen to voice commands and some criminals can hack in to listen to conversations. To change this, again check the default recording of the audio settings and if there is a microphone, turn on the mute button. (Gensis Toys)
Text messages: A cyber-attack against a famous toy manufacturer exposed over 190GB of photos and chat logs between parents and their children. It is important to keep such devices secure by filtering the contact list to include people your child knows. (Gensis Toys)
Text messages: A cyber-attack against a famous toy manufacturer exposed over 190GB of photos and chat logs between parents and their children. It is important to keep such devices secure by filtering the contact list to include people your child knows. (V-tech)
Biometric data: This type of security feature can be used to get your child’s physical and behavioural characteristics. Trend Micro says to make sure that the device manufacturer requires your written consent before any biometric data is collected or shared and to also find out if there’s an option to refuse data collection at any given time.
Cloud storage: Smart device manufacturers can use cloud storage to control and process data, and with data stored in the cloud, parents must know that there is a chance that their child’s data may be compromised. Trend Micro says parents and guardians to learn where the data is stored and how it is collected. It is also essential to pick a device that has security software that a trusted security provider installed and also check if there is an option not to store data in the cloud. (Getty Images)
