Our smart devices are watching us
It's time for us to watch them
Relaunching Jan 2025
Major revision since our first release in 2019
We will release the new version in Jan 2025 — just in time for you to check any new devices purchased during the holiday seasons. The new version will be available on Linux (e.g., Raspberry Pi), macOS (Apple Silicon), and Windows 11. You can also view our GitHub repository.
What is IoT Inspector?
Built by academic researchers, IoT Inspector is an open-source desktop app that lets you visualize what your smart home IoT devices are doing behind the scene and identify potential security and privacy violations
Visualize network activities
What are my devices doing?
See what your devices are doing, how many bytes they are sending and receiving, and which companies they are communicating with
Identify security and privacy risks
Are my devices hacked?
Based on the network activities, you can see whether your devices are sending data when they are not supposed to, or to companies you don't know about
Learn more: research paper | presentation video | how we collect data | source code | university IRB approval
Media coverage: NPR | fast company | washington post | verge | wired | the atlantic | cbc news | 9to5mac | techcrunch | gizmodo | WHCR Voice of Harlem
Who are we?
We are academic researchers from all around the world
Prof. Danny Y. Huang (New York University)
Prof. Anupam Das (North Carolina State University)
Rameen Mahmood (New York University)
Vijay Prakash (New York University)
Md. Jakaria (North Carolina State University)
Prof. Noah Apthorpe (Colgate University)
Prof. Nick Feamster (University of Chicago)
Dr. Deepak Kumar (Stanford University)
Prof. Gunes Acar (Radboud University)
Prof. Frank Li (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Prof. Arvind Narayanan (Princeton University)
This work is supported in part by National Science Foundation Awards 1739809, 2219867, 2232655, and 2346332, as well as Amazon, CableLabs, Cisco, Comcast, Consumer Reports, Hewlett Foundation, and Microsoft.
Publications
IoT Inspector's development is driven by research since 2016
Can Allowlists Capture the Variability of Home IoT Device Network Behavior?
Weijia He, Kevin Bryson, Ricardo Calderon, Vijay Prakash, Nick Feamster, Danny Yuxing Huang, Blase Ur
European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P). 2024.
Connecting the Dots: Tracing Data Endpoints in IoT Devices
Md Jakaria, Danny Yuxing Huang, Anupam Das
Proceedings of Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PoPETS). 2024
Reza Ghaiumy Anaraky, Yao Li, Hichang Cho, Danny Yuxing Huang, Kaileigh Angela Byrne, Bart Knijnenburg, Oded Nov
ACM SIG CHI (Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction). 2024.
In the Room Where It Happens: Characterizing Local Communication and Threats in Smart Homes
Aniketh Girish, Tianrui Hu, Vijay Prakash, Daniel J. Dubois, Srdjan Matic, Danny Yuxing Huang, Serge Egelman, Joel Reardon, Juan Tapiador, David Choffnes, Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez
ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC). 2023.
Behind the Scenes: Uncovering TLS and Server Certificate Practice of IoT Device Vendors in the Wild
Hongying Dong, Hao Shu, Vijay Prakash, Yizhe Zhang, Muhammad Talha Paracha, David Choffnes, Santiago Torres-Arias, Danny Yuxing Huang, Yixin Sun
ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC). 2023
Augmented Reality's Potential for Identifying and Mitigating Home Privacy Leaks
Stefany Cruz, Logan Danek, Shinan Liu, Christopher Kraemer, Zixin Wang, Nick Feamster, Danny Yuxing Huang, Yaxing Yao, Josiah Hester
Workshop on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC). 2023.
Inferring Software Update Practices on Smart Home IoT Devices Through User Agent Analysis
Vijay Prakash, Sicheng Xie, Danny Yuxing Huang
ACM Workshop on Software Supply Chain Offensive Research and Ecosystem Defenses (SCORED). 2022.
Three Years of Crowdsourcing Smart Home Network Traffic
Danny Yuxing Huang
USENIX ;login; Magazine. 2022.
IoT Inspector: Crowdsourcing Labeled Network Traffic from Smart Home Devices at Scale
Danny Yuxing. Huang, Noah Apthorpe, Gunes Acar, Frank Li, and Nick Feamster
Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT / Ubicomp). 2020.Watching You Watch: The Tracking Ecosystem of Over-the-Top TV Streaming Devices
Hooman Mohajeri Moghaddam, Gunes Acar, Ben Burgess, Arunesh Mathur, Danny Yuxing Huang, Nick Feamster, Edward W. Felten, Prateek Mittal, Arvind Narayanan
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS). 2019.
Keeping the Smart Home Private with Smart(er) IoT Traffic Shaping
Noah Apthorpe, Danny Yuxing Huang, Dillon Reisman, Arvind Narayanan, Nick Feamster
Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS). 2019.
Noah Apthorpe, Sarah Varghese, Nick Feamster
USENIX Security Symposium. 2019.
Fast Web-based Attacks to Discover and Control IoT Devices
Gunes Acar, Danny Y. Huang, Frank Li, Arvind Narayanan, and Nick Feamster
ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on IoT Security and Privacy. 2018.
Security and Privacy Analyses of Internet of Things Children's Toys
Gordon Chu, Noah Apthorpe, Nick Feamster
IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IoT-J). 2018.
Machine Learning DDoS Detection for Consumer Internet of Things Devices
Rohan Doshi, Noah Apthorpe, Nick Feamster
IEEE Deep Learning and Security Workshop (DLS). 2018.
Discovering IoT Smart Home Privacy Norms using Contextual Integrity
Noah Apthorpe, Yan Shvartzshnaider, Arunesh Mathur, Dillon Reisman, Nick Feamster
ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (Ubicomp/IMWUT). 2018.
Cleartext Data Transmissions in Consumer IoT Medical Devices
Daniel Wood, Noah Apthorpe, Nick Feamster
Workshop on Internet of Things Security and Privacy (IoT S&P). 2017
Closing the Blinds: Four Strategies for Protecting Smart Home Privacy from Network Observers
Noah Apthorpe, Dillon Reisman, Nick Feamster
Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection (ConPro). 2017.
A Smart Home is No Castle: Privacy Vulnerabilities of Encrypted IoT Traffic
Noah Apthorpe, Dillon Reisman, Nick Feamster
Data and Algorithmic Transparency Workshop (DAT). 2016.
Questions?
Visit our GitHub page for contact info.
New York University - Tandon School of Engineering, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
© 2024