Ferret

Description

Smart Home Internet of Things (IoT) devices have immensely grown in popularity in recent years. In 2019 alone, the number of active IoT devices eclipsed 26.66 billion. Despite this widespread adoption, the security and privacy implications of these devices remains a cause of concern for consumers, many of which lack the technical expertise and knowledge to promptly check their devices for vulnerabilities and adjust security settings accordingly. For this purpose, we developed Ferret, an Android application that can probe IoT devices on a home network for vulnerabilities and highlight them in a clear and concise way for users. Through this application, we not only provide consumers with the convenience to easily probe their IoT devices for weaknesses so they can take steps to make them more secure but also study their perceptions through surveys to facilitate future IoT security and privacy research.