It’s not that they’re actively spying, it’s just another way that an attacker could get in. You can have a highly secure network setup but if there’s a cheap IoT device with no security connected then suddenly that’s a backdoor in for a real attacker. Maybe that’s John Hackerman at the NSA, maybe it’s some script kiddie scanning for anyone running a device with a known exploit!
And that’s why IoT devices needing internet access don’t have access to other devices on the network and vice versa for devices with a local interface.
It’s not that they’re actively spying, it’s just another way that an attacker could get in. You can have a highly secure network setup but if there’s a cheap IoT device with no security connected then suddenly that’s a backdoor in for a real attacker. Maybe that’s John Hackerman at the NSA, maybe it’s some script kiddie scanning for anyone running a device with a known exploit!
And that’s why IoT devices needing internet access don’t have access to other devices on the network and vice versa for devices with a local interface.