[VIDEO]Safe, home internet…really?
How one company is making sure you’re protected
We live in a day and age where connection to the internet is vital for most people. More people work from home now than ever before. The internet is by far the number one source of news and entertainment consumption. Also, as more and more Internet of Things (IoT) devices fill store endcaps, consistently securing and connecting these devices becomes a challenge.
Security and safety has largely been reported as consumers main concern against upgrading to a smarter home. Especially since hacking news comes to us almost daily. Consider this situation where a couple’s IP baby monitor had been hacked as seen on YouTube (Invader Hacks into Nursery). Or, this story where a creepy pervert hacked in to spy on the mom breastfeeding and changing her baby (Creepy perv wakes up baby). Situations like these are almost enough to make someone want to go completely off grid. However, with the advent of advanced cyber security measures, many modern people have learned how to secure their smart homes.
The problem resides with old, outdated routing technology that still powers 90% of homes and small businesses (aka the small office/home office market, SOHO). Most internet provider, or, big box store bought internet routers are a security nightmare. Tripwire’s Vulnerability and Exposure Research Team (VERT) recently published an extensive report about the SOHO internet router problem that plagues American homes.
The report states, “A Tripwire research study of 653 IT and security professionals and 1,009 employees working remotely, found that critical security vulnerabilities are endemic across the entire Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) wireless router market. Used extensively in SOHO environments, these routers are frequently left unprotected by users, who often do not utilize even basic security controls that can protect the routers from attack.”
The end findings of this report documented that 80 percent of the top 25 selling brands of routing equipment had open, “hackable” security vulnerabilities. What’s worse, there are easily accessible “hacking tutorials” publicly available via a quick Google search that anyone can access (Read the full Tripwire PDF Report Here).
Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) confirmed these discoveries in their exploitation publication on SOHO equipment. Mentioning top, giant brand names like: Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, Belkin, and even Verizon. The implications that the ISE report noted were very serious. The report informed that, “A parent or child in the case of the home, any or all students behind a university router, or any guest or untrained user of a small office or enterprise network can be targeted and leveraged to gain full control of the SOHO networking device, which may also lead to additional attacks being launched against other users.” With all of these security vulnerabilities in play, and more and more IoT devices needing WiFi and internet connectivity services with each passing month, security microscopes have turned to investigate the home network router as the new security frontier (read the full ISE report on their website here).
One company is tackling this problem within homes and small businesses. Proper Access offers a flagship, Home WiFi Upgrade Solution that it claims re-secures the smart home. It even includes a hack-proof guarantee for its customers. “The problem with SOHO equipment is that it’s old, outdated technology,” said Sean O’Brien, Founder and CEO of Proper Access, “The big box brands are trying to cram too many features into their devices without a fundamental focus on security—our security first solution is different.” Sean went on to claim that by upgrading to the Proper Access solution, users can connect up to 500 IoT devices. In comparison, most SOHO routers can only reliably handle about 5 IoT devices.
There are three primary, core networking components to the solution instead of just one colored box with some antennas sticking out everywhere. These components are an advanced security gateway, a smart switch (layer 2/3), and WiFi access points that effectively cover the home or business with no signal dead spots. This advanced network configuration approach has been able to fix the security issues that were compromising old SOHO equipment. Sean stated that he hopes to take Proper Access nationwide within a few, short years. He said, “security is vital to the smart home and we’re winning the battle so we want to help as many people as we can.”
Interested parties can learn more about Proper Access and order their own Home WiFi upgrade right from the company’s website at ProperAccess.com.
