How do you lock down a smart fridge and other home IoT gadgets so they can’t be hacked?

Put IoT gadgets on a separate guest or IoT network, change default passwords, turn on automatic updates, disable UPnP and unused remote access, and check your router’s device list monthly — the practical lockdown prompted by WIRED’s fridge-hacking reporting, plus what to look for in a router with IoT isolation.

Your fridge has a screen, a camera and a Wi-Fi password — which makes it a small computer that happens to keep food cold. Short answer: you lock it down the way you would any computer a stranger might probe — put it on its own separate network, change its default password, keep its software updated, and switch off every remote connection it does not need. WIRED’s reporting on a recent fridge-hacking spree is the wake-up call: connected appliances are being reached and abused because they ship with weak defaults and sit on the same home network as your laptop and phone.Why it matters: an attacker rarely wants your fridge.

They want a foothold — one neglected gadget on a flat home network becomes the doorway to everything else on it. Isolation is what turns a hacked gadget into a contained nuisance instead of a household breach.Lock down your fridge and other IoT gadgets, step by step:1. Give gadgets their own network.

Turn on your router’s guest network (or a dedicated IoT network or VLAN if it offers one) and connect the fridge, TV, plugs and cameras to that — never to the same network as your computers and phones.2. Change every default password. If a device has its own account or app login, set a long, unique password for it and store it in a password manager.3.

Turn on automatic updates in each device’s app, and keep your router’s own firmware updated too — the router is the front door.4. Switch off what you do not use. Disable UPnP in the router settings, and turn off remote access and port forwarding on any device that does not truly need it.5.

Check the guest list monthly. Open your router’s connected-device list once a month and remove or investigate anything you do not recognise.Shopping for a router? Look for a guest or IoT network with device isolation (gadgets can reach the internet but not each other or your main network), automatic firmware updates, and WPA3 — those three features do most of the protective work.Common mistake: believing a strong Wi-Fi password is enough.

It keeps strangers out, but it does nothing once a weak gadget is already inside the same network as everything you own.