How to Turn Your House into a Smart Home

It's summer, 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and you're about to leave home. As you leave your bedroom, the lights dim slowly and eventually turn off. You walk down the hall, step out the door, and lock it. Inside, you can hear the air condition sputter to a stop. As you saunter down the street, you wonder if you left the coffee pot on, but don't think twice about it, as the appliance is running an automated check right now to ensure it's off. Later that night, around 11:15, your mattress cover will cool down your side of the bed so it's just the way you like it by 11:30, when you hit the hay.

This kind of smart home system is already possible. All kinds of small appliances, light bulbs, door sensors, and other home products can automatically turn on and off when triggered by certain actions. Smart homes make life more comfortable, and they're typically designed to be power-efficient, which could save you money.

If you're interested in taking your home from dumb to smart, how do you start? And how can you build on it to make it incrementally more intelligent all the time? One very important note about smart home components is that you must change the default user name and password when you set them up. If you don't, you're leaving your home exposed to hackers and other threats. 

Below some products in the market that will help you to turn your house into a Smart Home.

Home Automation Systems

Insteon, a best-seller in wireless home-control networking technology, offers hardware and software for every residential need, from irrigation control and occupancy sensing to remote-control HVAC. If this all sounds a little daunting, consider easing into automation with the company's starter kit for lighting and appliance control. Available on Amazon; $126.

August Smart Lock

The August Smart Lock uses its keyless technology to keep your home safe, even when you're not around. From your smartphone, you can let guests in, check to make sure that you locked up before you left the house, keep a record of who's entered and exited, and unlock your door as you trudge up to your home after a long day's work. Convenient? Yes. Smart? You bet. Available on Amazon; $218. 

Video Doorbell

It's like caller ID for your front porch! The VTech video doorbell allows you to screen—and even video chat with—visitors before you answer the door. Not home? No worries. The system takes a snapshot each time the doorbell is pressed, so you'll always know who came knocking while you were away. Available on Amazon; $115.

Philips Hue Smart Lighting

What can Philips Hue do for you? For starters, the system can set your lights to brighten gradually in the morning to wake you up naturally. You can also re-create the quality of light from any photo on your smartphone by using a dropper tool to choose the palette. Or you can simply configure your lighting to turn on and off at set times. Starter Pack Available on Amazon; $199.

Smart TVs

Navigate through movies, music, social media, apps, the Internet, and—last but not least—television channels, from the comfort of your living room couch. And, with Samsung Smart TV's voice-interaction capabilities, you don't even have to worry when the remote goes missing. Available on Amazon; $900.

Bosch Dishwasher

Everything about the new Bosch 800 Plus Series Dishwasher is smart. Behind the door of this quiet genius is a flexible third rack for awkward items, a touch-screen control panel, and built-in water softener. A full-color text display screen gives cycle status and maintenance updates. Simply brilliant! Available on Amazon; $915. 

The Nest Learning Thermostat

The Nest is the first of its kind, a design-savvy programmable thermostat that learns your schedule and programs itself. It can even be controlled from your phone. Teach it well and it could save you up to 20 percent on heating and cooling costs. Available on Amazon; $247.

Network Security is important

$10 router blamed in Bangladesh bank hack

Hackers managed to steal $80m (£56m) from Bangladesh's central bank because it skimped on network hardware and security software, reports Reuters.

The bank had no firewall and used second-hand routers that cost $10 to connect to global financial networks.

Better security and hardware would have hampered the attackers, Reuters said, quoting an official investigator.

The hackers aimed to steal $1bn but made mistakes that led to the theft being spotted and stopped.

Better defense

A firewall would have made attempts to hack the bank more "difficult". The second-hand hardware also meant that basic security steps to segregate network traffic were not taken, he said.

The cheap routers have hindered the investigation, because they collected very little network data that could be used to pinpoint the hackers and shed light on their tactics.

The hack took place in early February and involved hackers getting access to the core network of Bangladesh's central bank. They used this privileged access to transfer cash from Bangladesh's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to other banks.

A spelling mistake in one of the transfer orders alerted bank staff and meant the hackers only managed to steal $ 81m. This has been traced to accounts in the Philippines and to casinos in the same country. Most of the cash has yet to be recovered.

Bank security experts said the bank should have spent more time and money protecting the network for its central bank.

"You are talking about an organisation that has access to billions of dollars and they are not taking even the most basic security precautions,"

Hackers are knocking at the door. Detect and stop threats to your customers’ networks before they become a problem with next-generation firewall solutions. With Cisco security systems you can block more threats and quickly mitigate those that do breach your defenses with the industry’s first threat-focused NGFW. Cisco Firepower NGFW appliances combine their proven network firewall with the industry’s most effective next-gen IPS and advanced malware protection.
All so you can get more visibility, be more flexible, save more, and protect better. You must take the right security decisions to protect your network from hackers attacks.