Sure, just about anything with a stable Wi-Fi connection can be hacked or exploited by a "professional" hacker. Unless it is a device not attached whatsoever to the Internet, it can be breached in some way or form. This is a very broad range of objects, so in this article we will be diving deep into the list of five interesting things that can be hacked!

Number 5: Baby Monitors

Now, as a college student, we don't put too much thought into a baby monitor unless we've had younger siblings and overly-protective parents. So, naturally it doesn't seem so harmful to anyone in our specific age group— however this is a serious and very dangerous device to hack and exploit.

Why? Think of what a baby monitor's purpose is: To monitor young children. This is why this device poses such a threat when hacked and/or exploited. Babies, and even young children can be watched from disturbing distances by anyone who seizes these devices. Unfortunately, this also includes other individuals who wish to do harm to the family and, perhaps even, the children in particular. Be sure to be careful if you place these throughout your house!

Number 4: Cars with Bluetooth Functionality

We all drive a vehicle, or rely on some kind of transportation to both work and/or classes. However, did you consider that these vehicles can be hacked? Especially in newer vehicles, navigation and music allow users to connect to their vehicles via Bluetooth functions. The most important thing to remember regarding Bluetooth, is that as long as it has an outbound connection, that connection can be intercepted by someone experienced in this field of expertise.

A very prominent individual who has a notable history of being able to successfully do this is the Pittsburgh-famed, Chris Valasek. Mr. Valasek managed to successfully hack and exploit a Jeep Cherokee vehicle using its built-in Internet connectivity.

He could control the climate-control system, the music in the vehicle, even the windshield wipers and fluid dispenser through his personal computer. Valasek ultimately crashed the car into a ditch, after his experiment, to test the full amount of devastation he could cause. After this potentially dangerous experiment, he added:

"When I saw we could do it anywhere, over the Internet, I freaked out, I was frightened. It was like, holy fuck, that's a vehicle on a highway in the middle of the country. Car hacking got real, right then." ~Chris Valasek, Wired Interview, 2015

* Advice: The newer the car is NOT always the better model!

Number 3: (Newer) Children’s Toys

Sure, growing up we had some pretty cool toys ranging from plastic Star Wars lightsabers to Barbie playsets that folded out into deluxe mansions. But, did it ever dawn upon you about the newer toys that kids have these days? Bluetooth-enabled Barbie dolls, Sphero smartphone-controlled robots, smartphones and various smart devices (iPads, iPods, tablets, etc.), even things like drones and hoverboards are all on the Christmas lists of children! Growing up, we might’ve been lucky to get our favorite candy, let alone a drone or the newest smartphone.

Unfortunately, news toys come with almost catastrophic consequences: Hackers, even younger children who know how, can easily breach these Bluetooth-using fiends and cause them to do a number of destructive things. One example is the Furby. The Furby, if you remember, could randomly start itself up in the middle of the night and start communicating.

This led to a number of concerns in parents, which eventually grew into a larger issue: These devices could be hacked and exploited by anyone who tampered with the circuitry, or to say that hackers could actually re-wire some of the inside components of the Furby toy and make it do what they wanted.

This even included some sensory hacking, which allowed for hackers to manipulate the sensors and “see” what the Furby toy saw through its built-in cameras. With the toy being so incredibly cheap, it was easy to buy them in mass and tamper with many of them for interested hackers or individuals. You can see the problem— and maybe why no kids are playing with Furbies these days.

Number 2: SMART Appliances

You know those super cool (pun-intended) refrigerators which allow you to write lists or set reminders and send them directly to your mobile devices? Same principle applies: If it has an on/off button and connects to a network, chances are it can almost be indefinitely hacked and exploited.

Although it may seem extremely convenient to forward all of the ingredients you need to make a tasty dinner to your email or smartphone, it’s actually more dangerous and harmful than it is helpful and productive. A hacker being able to read everything in your own fridge, and potentially able to connect to your other devices? Maybe the regular, non-connected fridge will be just fine too.

Now, the moment surely everyone [who skipped the other 4 most interesting things that can be hacked] has been waiting for...

Number 1: Pacemakers and Implants (Bio-hacking)

Now, I wish I was making this up— but I'm not. This is a very real and potentially deadly form of hacking that has grown in popularity since its discovery. This can range from a couple definitions:

A) Hacking your own personal biology to make changes and adjustments to processes that occur within your body

B) Hacking other biology, most of which will exist outside of your own body. Included in this definition is making changes through experimentation on other cells that exist outside of your own person.

In this particular article, however, we will cover the negative aspect of bio-hacking, which involves the hacking of life-saving devices such as a pacemaker. This, as imaginable by anyone, can be probably the most painful and hard-hitting form of hacking to-date. Imagine the ability to flip people's lives on or off, like it's a game. Even other devices such as implants can be remotely activated, deactivated, or even destroyed from within another person's body by someone seeking to do harm or evil.

Sometimes, it's hard to imagine what else could potentially come from such a dangerous lifestyle that we live in; completely digital and growing faster than ever. With all of these very cool inventions, comes a wave of both responsibilities and consequences as our lives become increasingly connected to the virtual frontier that is the Internet.