With the holiday season around the corner, thoughts turn to a warm home brightened up by the twinkle of seasonal decorations. It’s always tempting to opt for the high-tech solution and control your festive lights with one of the growing number of home automation devices available. However, Symantec has found that some of these devices contain security flaws that could allow attackers to gain access to your home network.

Virtual machines (VM) have been used for many years and are popular among researchers because malware can be executed and analyzed on them without having to reinstall production systems every time. These tests can be done manually or on automated systems, with each method providing different benefits or drawbacks.