Smart home devices: every one is a door
A smart house is a house full of small computers, and each one is a way onto the network everything else sits on. The cheap ones tend to stop receiving security updates long before they stop working.
This is not an argument against them. It is an argument for knowing what you have.
Do this today
- Write down every connected device in the house. Most people miss three or four — the TV, the printer, an old tablet, a games console.
- Change the default password on anything that still has one, especially cameras and the router itself.
- Turn on automatic firmware updates where the device offers it. Where it does not, note the brand — that is a device to replace, not to patch.
What good looks like
You could name every device on your network, and none of them are still using the password they shipped with.
Guest devices go on the guest network. Most routers have one and almost nobody turns it on.
Want someone to just do this for you? Start a conversation — twenty minutes, free.
Last reviewed: September 2026