Why it's 'feasible' your home could be hacked - and two ways it can happen

With increasing improvements in technology, our homes - and the appliances that fill them - are becoming smarter and smarter.

Once analogue ovens and fridges are now more interconnected, with TVs, speakers, heating, lighting and home personal assistants all connected to Wi-Fi and run by phone apps. While this offers greater personal convenience, it opens up homes to the threat of hacks - with every new connection another possible vulnerability.

Such hacks are not common, but in December, South Korean police announced that four people had been arrested for allegedly hacking more than 120,000 home video cameras, showing that it is a possible threat. Read more on the Money blog Invest in a 'padlock' to guard against 'silent' attack Dr Manny Niri, a cybersecurity expert at Oxford Brookes University, has told Money that hacking a smart home is "unfortunately, quite feasible".

He added: "Many smart devices are designed to be cheap and easy to use, but not secure by default. "People often keep factory passwords or do not update device software.

Attackers use automated tools to scan the internet for these weak devices. "In many cases, the hacking is silent, such as viewing a camera without the user noticing.

The South Korea case shows how simple security failures can lead to serious privacy harm." Ethical hacker Glenn Wilkinson also told Money there can be some "significant risks" in a smart home, but explained the likelihood of hacking a home in terms of how secure a padlock is - encouraging the public to invest in their cybersecurity. "A cheap lock from the corner shop is probably quite easy to pick," he said.

"A padlock made to lock a vault of gold is likely a lot more secure." If hackers can get into one device, they can try to access others on the same home network, Niri explained, adding: "The outcome can include spying through cameras, stealing personal data, or using the home internet connection for criminal activity." Read more:Britons using refund trick to steal meals and goodsWhy you probably shouldn't book a hotel on your laptopHow much your data is worth Two ways it could happen However, perhaps reassuringly, hackers aren't targeting homes individually, camped outside on their laptops in the back of dark vans, but instead operate broad "automated" scans of huge numbers of homes looking for weaknesses they can exploit. "There are constant background scans hitting home IP addresses every day, as is the reality of the internet," Wilkinson said.

He outlined two main ways a smart home could be hacked: The devices themselves: Whether it's cameras, doorbells, smart locks, TVs - they all, Wilkinson said, are small computers with software that can be hacked;And the internet-facing services connected to such devices: Hackers can also target the cloud platforms, apps or account logins associated with the actual physical devices. If the worst did happen, privacy and personal data are key things that might be at stake from a hack.

But Wilkinson said that there was also the issue of the control of devices. Hackers taking control of devices "could be a nuisance" or "could be more serious.