100 Million Internet-of-Things Devices Possibly Exposed To Z-Wave Hack

Z-Wave, which is a protocol typically used for the purpose of home automation, employs low-energy radio waves for the purpose of wireless communications across the distances of up to 330 feet. Created by Zensys in the year 2001, Z-wave was taken over by Sigma Designs in the year 2008. Silicon Labs recently purchased it for $240 million.

As per the Z-Wave Alliance, which is a company devoted to advancing Z-Wave, at present this protocol is being used by approximately 700 organizations in more than 2,400 IoT and smart home products such as locks, thermostats and home monitoring products.

Pen Test Partners, which is based in the UK, did an analysis of Z-Wave wherein it was found that an attacker in the radar of the targeted IoT devices during the time of the pairing process can initiate an attack and hijack the apparently secure communications.

Now the altruistic hackers in the United Kingdom have demonstrated how straightforward and quick it is to open a door and launch an attack on the so-called smart locks and alarms. This security flaw which is around five years old is present in software which has been shipped to over 100 million devices. These devices evidently make the home smarter and safer. Bulks, doorbells, and house alarms constitute the array of products from more than 2400 distinct sellers who are shipping products which have a flaw in its code.

A considerable number of smart home equipment are now vulnerable to attacks which would result in break-ins and digital haunting.

Z-Wave is dependent on a shared network key for securing the traffic between the client device and the controller when they both are paired together. The first version of the pairing procedure, which was dubbed SO, was reported to be susceptible to sniffing attacks five years ago in the year 2013. This resulted in the introduction of a more secure process dubbed S2.

The Z-Wave S2 was the challenging standard. It gives a way for the smart home devices to communicate through a wireless network and it is an updated form of the old protocol called Z-Wave S0. Z-Wave S0 was very vulnerable to attacks which could grab the vital keys in no time.

It is necessary to secure your devices from attacks conducted by hackers. To do so, you can install Norton security on them. Visit Norton.com/setup or Norton.com/myaccount to know more.

Source:- Norton.Com/Setup