Russian hacking thread

[Cave Man]

Not interested in a political discussion, but would like to know if my "smart" devices (thermostat and two garage door openers) are vulnerable if they are connected to the 'net through my Airport Extreme Base Station (802.11AC). From what I gather, the principal issue is if the default password is not change the device is vulnerable. My thermostat's pw has been changed, but as far as I know there is no way to change the password on the garage doors, or if they even have passwords. Any ideas?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-joint-alert-warning-of-russian-cyber-attacks

 

[casperes1996]

Anything that is digital and not entirely isolated, is vulnerable. And I can promise you that if somebody has enough time, changing the password from the default won't stop them, it'll just increase the time it takes to crack into the devices. Let's say your neighbour (presuming they're in your wi-fi range) wanted to control your devices, they could set a password cracker to just try every single possible combination, and they'd get in one day. The problem with default passwords, is that password cracking tools try a list of default passwords out as the first thing, so you'll be hacked immediately. With the right processing power and the right time, anything can be hacked though.

The practical answer though, is that if your wi-fi has a good enough password, the devices on the network are likely well enough protected for most probable attacks.

 

[Cave Man]

OK, thanks for that response. I will investigate the garage door openers to see how they are connected.