Every year before the biggest consumer holidays: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, technology blogs rush to create lists with the hottest gadgets and the best deals to watch for. The end of 2016 was no exception, only this year, everything on those lists seemed to have “Smart” attached to it – thermostats, vacuum cleaners, security cameras, voice control virtual assistants, lights, doorbells, TVs – all “Smart”.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, as the market for smart home devices is estimated to be $83 billion by the end of this year, rising to $195 billion by 2021. Gartner predicts the average family house will contain more than 500 smart devices by 2022. I think it’s safe to say that the smart home devices are here to stay.
While the advantages of having a connected home are clear: Starting your vacuum from miles away or automatically turning on your lights when you arrive home, many people are not aware of security risks that come from welcoming such connected devices into our homes.
The problem is that many of these devices have serious security flaws. A simple Google search on “IoT hack” or “smart device hacks” reveals an unbelievable amount of vulnerable devices and ways to hack them. Problems range from having no traffic encryption, to hidden back doors into the firmware, to “super secure” default username/password combinations such as admin/admin. All these security flaws make it easy for hackers to take control of these devices.
This could translate into more than just someone turning your lights on in the middle of the night. By compromising one device, hackers could get access to your entire network, and by snooping on your internet activity they could get access to personal info such as your bank account, social media profile, emails, or personal photos. Needless to say that that would be a bit more than a mild inconvenience.
So how can you protect your network?
Meet ALLY, a smart and secure router ready for the growing security needs of the connected home. ALLY is developed by Amped Wireless and secured by AVG.
We believe the best way to protect your family and your smart devices is by securing your connected home right at the internet access point, the router. This is why we worked together with Amped Wireless, the leading manufacturer of high power, long range wireless solutions, to provide a router that is both capable of delivering Wi-Fi in every corner of your home and offering great security for all your IoT devices.
Thanks to AVG’s security solution, ALLY can stop threats in their tracks blocking malware links before they even load on your devices.
Having AVG security embedded on the router, you are adding an extra layer of security for all your connected devices. This is especially important for those vulnerable devices which cannot be protected by an antivirus such as webcams, thermostats, lights, doorbells, …
And there’s even more. Ally also comes with an easy-to-use smartphone app that lets you access useful parental control features such as content blocking, app blocking, scheduled internet curfews, and pausing the internet during family dinners.
Take the first step into protecting your smart home.
ALLY is a product built on Chime
