How do you protect your home from cyber attacks?

21 September 2026

The increasing cyber threat

In a more digitalized world, this means more and more opportunities for cybercriminals to strike. “Smart” internet-connected products have become part of everyday life and have increased convenience. As the number of smart products in homes increases, so do the ways in which hackers can carry out cyberattacks, steal personal data or cause privacy violations.

Given that the internet-connected devices in the home are interconnected, even a seemingly harmless attack on one of the devices can lead to significantly more serious privacy breaches, such as cybercriminals gaining access to banking details, shopping habits or other sensitive information.

How to protect your smart home? Below we list 8 tips on how to best protect yourself and your home.

  1. Install a VPN on your router, which encrypts the traffic of all smart products used in the home network, the data becomes anonymous and more difficult for hackers or third parties to use.
  2. Use strong passwords for your wireless network.
  3. Divide your home network into smaller segments to isolate IoT devices from devices that store sensitive information.
  4. Disable unnecessary features on your smart devices that are not needed for their basic function. For example, turn off the products’ location services and the like.
  5. Review the security practices of manufacturers before purchasing an IoT device. Choose devices from trusted manufacturers that provide regular security updates.
  6. Limit the sharing of personal information by configuring privacy settings on your devices.
  7. Exercise caution and control over what data you consent to collect and share, and be careful about sharing personal information online.
  8. Regularly back up your data and important files to an external drive so that you can restore your data if necessary.