Making Home Automation Communications Secure

L ong the futuristic domain of hobbyists, home automation is now moving from the bleeding edge to the mainstream. Utility service providers offer specialized and valuable applications such as energy load management to retain customers in the face of competition. More new homes are wired for intelligent control, with security, comfort, and convenience systems becoming networkaware. Homeowners can orchestrate and monitor appliances from multiple locations within the house or even remotely via telephone and the Internet, and delegate limited controls to utility service providers. New communications technology offers numerous benefits, but it also opens home automation to many security threats. To protect against these threats within the limited resources of a typical home automation system, we have developed a family of products based on Honeywell’s Global Home Server, a remote Web site that provides secure Internet access and other services to client installations.