( CNN ) -- Last weekend a Texas couple apparently discovered that the electronic `` baby monitor '' in their children 's bedroom had been hacked . According to a local TV station , the couple said they heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the room , went to investigate and found that someone had taken control of the camera monitor remotely and was shouting profanity-laden abuse . The child 's father unplugged the monitor . What does this mean for the rest of us ? How secure are consumer electronic systems , now that they 're all attached to the Internet ? The answer is not very , and it 's been this bad for many years . Security vulnerabilities have been found in all types of webcams , cameras of all sorts , implanted medical devices , cars , and even smart toilets -- not to mention yachts , ATM machines , industrial control systems and military drones . All of these things have long been hackable . Those of us who work in security are often amazed that most people do n't know about it . Why are they hackable ? Because security is very hard to get right . It takes expertise , and it takes time . Most companies do n't care because most customers buying security systems and smart appliances do n't know enough to care . Why should a baby monitor manufacturer spend all sorts of money making sure its security is good when the average customer wo n't even notice ? Five scary hacks . Even worse , that consumer will look at two competing baby monitors -- a more expensive one with better security , and a cheaper one with minimal security -- and buy the cheaper . Without the expertise to make an informed buying decision , cheaper wins . A lot of hacks happen because the users do n't configure or install their devices properly , but that 's really the fault of the manufacturer . These are supposed to be consumer devices , not specialized equipment for security experts only . This sort of thing is true in other aspects of society , and we have a variety of mechanisms to deal with it . Government regulation is one of them . For example , few of us can differentiate real pharmaceuticals from snake oil , so the FDA regulates what can be sold and what sorts of claims vendors can make . Independent product testing is another . You and I might not be able to tell a well-made car from a poorly-made one at a glance , but we can both read the reports from a variety of testing agencies . 'Smart homes ' are vulnerable , say hackers . Computer security has resisted these mechanisms , both because the industry changes so quickly and because this sort of testing is hard and expensive . But the effect is that we 're all being sold a lot of insecure consumer products with embedded computers . And as these computers get connected to the Internet , the problems will get worse . The moral here is n't that your baby monitor could be hacked . The moral is that pretty much every `` smart '' everything can be hacked , and because consumers do n't care , the market wo n't fix the problem . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bruce Schneier .
Bruce Schneier : Texas couple 's baby monitor hacked . Stranger was looking into child 's room . He says , surprise , many smart electronics attached to internet have long been insecure . He says everything from smart toilets to drones hackable . Comment: Schneier : Consumers settle for cheapest item with poor security , so market wo n't fix problem .