The FBI has issued a security warning about IoT toys.

IoT toys have the potential to violate children’s privacy and safety, given the amount of pertinent information the toys can collect and store, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned this week in an advisory.

The sensors, microphones, data storage capabilities, cameras and other features of Internet of Things (IoT) toys are able to vacuum up extensive details about a child’s name, school, activities and even their physical location.

And if those toys are hacked, criminals could use the stolen information to harm a child, the FBI warned.

What Makes IoT Toys Vulnerable?

Data collected from interactions or conversations between children and toys are typically sent and stored by the manufacturer or developer via a server or a cloud service. In some cases, data are also collected by third party companies that manage the voice recognition software used in the toys.

Voice recordings, toy Web application passwords, home addresses, WiFi information, and sensitive personal data could be exposed if the security of the data is not sufficiently protected with the proper use of digital certificates and encryption when it is being transmitted or stored.

Smart toys connect to the Internet either directly, through WiFi to an Internet connected wireless access point; or indirectly, via Bluetooth to an Android or iOS device that is connected to the Internet.
Key factors affecting the user’s security include: the cyber security features, the toy’s partner applications and the WiFi network through which the toy connects.

Superior communications connections - where data is encrypted between the toy, WiFi access points, and Internet servers that store data or interact with the toy - are crucial to mitigate the risk of hackers exploiting the toy or eavesdropping on conversations or audio messages.

The FBI notes that Bluetooth connected toys that do not have authentication requirements (such as PINs or passwords) pose risks for unauthorized access, enabling criminals to communicate with children.

What You Can Do To Protect Your Child

• Choose IoT toys very carefully by doing lots of research. Look for any known reported security issues regarding a toy.
• Find out if a toy can receive firmware or software updates and security patches - and ensure the toy is running on the latest version.
• Closely monitor your child’s activities with each toy through the toy’s parent application, if such a capability exists.
• Ensure the toy is turned off when it is not in use.
• Create a strong and unique login password when establishing a user account. For extra strong passwords, use lower and upper case letters, numbers and special characters.
• Provide only what is minimally required for creating a user account.

7 simple tips to make your website stand out.

Your website is the digital home of your business, often the first page prospective clients land on.

Time to audit your site to make sure you’re not committing any of these homepage fails:

1. A clear call to action. If your users ask “what am I supposed to do here?” you’ve already lost their attention.

2. Simple navigation. Follow the KISS rule: keep your menus and top navigation simple! Don’t have too many choices to bewilder users.

3. Less is more. Your users are scanning your homepage for what they need, not cozying up with a cup of tea for a long read

4. Know your audience. Know who’s coming to your site and give them what they’re coming for up front, whether that’s news, your latest products, or a specific newsletter sign-up.

5. Be unique. Don’t break the cardinal rule of branding. It’s important that your audience can tell the difference between you and your competitors.

6. Update often. Keep your site fresh with updates on the regular, and you’ll keep users coming back.

7. Check your ABCs. Spell check, spell check, spell check.

Ready to get a professional website that works for your business? Call IES now at 781-816-9437 or visit iesAdvisors.com.

Does your company have a website? Here's 3 things it should never do.

Is your website doing it’s job? If you’re not seeing the traffic, signup, or revenue numbers that you expect then your website might be making some big mistakes, but they might not be the mistakes that you think. Easily overlooked and often improperly implemented, these are the 3 things that your website should never do.

Create Ambiguity
A successful websites lives and dies on the strength and clarity of its messaging. It’s not just the copy, successful website messaging flows from site design and architecture all the way down to background images and font-type. Ambiguity is your enemy, so desired action must be clear: filling out a form, buying a product, or calling a phone number. Once you establish the action goals you can battle ambiguity by ensuring that every component of your website plays a part in pushing visitors toward these desired outcomes.

Get Pushy
Video and audio players that start automatically, “sign in to continue” pop-ups on informational pages, oversized images that reduce page speed – forcing unnecessary decisions or experiences can be the fastest way to push visitors away from your website. Instead of getting pushy, you should understand what a visitor wants from your site, and then work to resolve those intentions into a positive outcome.

Skimp on Visuals
Low-quality stock photos or mismatched color schemes send a bad message, you absolutely can’t afford to cut visual corners when building an effective website. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel on visual experience, leverage standard practices that visitors expect and appreciate. Resources like Kuler allow you to view user submitted color schemes to get inspiration and see what works for others while quality stock imagery is available from places like iStockphoto.com or Shutterstock.

If you have a struggling website, give IES a call. We can help you get a much higher ROI on your website by redesigning or reconfiguring it.

IES, Inc.
781-816-9437
iesAdvisors.com