In 2021, nearly 2.5 million Dutch people were victims of online crime.¹ Through poorly secured smart devices, hackers can penetrate your home network. 91% of Dutch households have one or more smart devices such as a smart TV or smart thermostat.² Only half say they regularly update their smart devices. This puts them at risk of being hacked. To make Dutch people aware of this, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate is running the "Do your updates" campaign.
As part of the campaign, an ethical hacker tried to get into some households' home network - with their permission. And thus using the wireless printer to print the Christmas card you don't want to receive.
Hackers only need one poorly secured device to get into your home. And thus access your personal data. Ethical hacker Dirk-Jan Bartels of Eurofins Digital Testing & Cyber Security collaborated on the campaign. His goal is to find and report possible security flaws: "Because smart devices are connected to your Wi-Fi network, hackers can get to all your personal data through your smart devices. By updating your devices, you ensure that the latest security is on them. That way you make it much more difficult for criminal hackers."
Bartels went on the road across the Netherlands and attempted to enter households' networks through inadequately secured devices. Beforehand, the households gave permission for the hacker to test whether their network and devices were secure enough. If he succeeded in breaking in, to their surprise he printed a Christmas card via wireless printer with tips to improve their digital security. "It was good to make people aware of possible security risks in this playful way," Bartels said. "You often read in the news about companies being hacked, but something like this can happen to you privately, too. At the households where it succeeded, you really noticed the surprise. Fortunately, there were also people who had done all their updates and where it therefore did not succeed in breaking into their network and printing the Christmas card. Whether it's a business or household, it's just important to do your updates regularly."
Not all smart devices update automatically, although this is often thought to be the case. Also, you don't always get a notification when an update is ready. Therefore, it is important to regularly check your smart devices yourself for new updates. For most devices, you do this in the settings in the corresponding app. By updating, besides new features, which you can easily see and recognize, digital vulnerabilities are often also solved. This keeps your smart devices safe and protects your network from cyber criminals.
Is your device connected to the Internet? Then your device is smart. And it makes sense to perform updates. Yet some smart devices are updated less frequently. For example, only 44% of Dutch people update their wireless printer. Household devices such as refrigerators and washing machines (31%) and remote-controlled switches (27%) are updated the least.
