The Smart Home Hacking Scene from Scream Can be Done

This article was made possible by the combination of two factors. The first was that it was National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October. Second, the first trailer for the new Scream film was released right in the middle of the month. There was a scene in there that made us nervous. Obviously, we’re referring to the smart lock industry.

When all of your home’s locks unlock, you take out your smartphone to re-lock them, only to have them all unlock again. Mr. Scary Killer has hacked into their victim’s Smart Home account and can control all of the devices throughout the house, according to the allegation.

I was becoming a little worried as someone who doesn’t carry keys to his house because of all the smart locks. As a result, I decided to speak with someone about it. To talk about it, I called out to John Shier, a senior security adviser at Sophos. He informed me of both good and terrible news. Let me begin with the unpleasant news. Yes, this is a viable option. The good news is that it’s quite difficult to do, and the even better news is that the chances of it happening to you are nil, unless you have someone who truly wants to harm you.

However, the truth is that there’s a decent probability that enough of your data is already out there to make anything like this conceivable. This is made possible by the combination of social engineering and data breaches. Either of these can provide an attacker with enough knowledge to get into your Smart Home. It becomes even more possible when we work together. But you must understand that when we claim something is possible, we must rapidly qualify it by adding it is unlikely.