Several Orange County technology companies at the CES trade show last week promoted new security enhancements and related partnerships in an era when mobile devices and networks are on the front line of targeted cyberattacks.
D-Link Systems in Fountain Valley introduced a Wi-Fi router powered by antivirus giant McAfee designed to help detect and prevent threats.
The router, scheduled for release next quarter, fuses McAfee’s Global Threat Intelligence system, fueled by machine learning culled from more than 25 years of data gathering, with Intel Corp.’s Home Wi-Fi chipsets capable of supporting as many as 128 simultaneously connected devices.
Intel was one of the biggest storylines at CES, given its keynote address followed a major gaffe that left its and competitors’ chips susceptible to hacks, though specific reports of breached consumer data have yet to surface.
Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said in the speech that more than 90% of Intel’s chips in consumer devices in the past five years will be updated to mitigate the flaw.
The D-Link router comes with an app that notifies owners of devices in use on their network for security purposes, and alerts them if a device lacks antivirus software, prompting a quick download to address the vulnerability.
The Wi-Fi router includes a two-year subscription to antivirus software delivered via the cloud. Features are highly customizable, including several parental controls and alerts, allowing users to “treat these devices differently based on their security profile,” Jay Opperman, director of McAfee’s Unified Security Consumer Americas division, told the Business Journal during a product demo.
The software runs vulnerability scans, notifies users to change default passwords, and thwarts botnet attacks—such as the vicious IoT_reaper and Marai, which spread through security loops in Internet of Things software and hardware and wreaked havoc in networks run by Spotify and Reddit while attacking routers made by D-Link, Netgear, Linksys and others.
Santa Clara-based McAfee, which was sold last year by Intel for $4.2 billion to TPG Capital and Thoma Bravo, estimated that Mirai alone infected more than 2.5 million devices.
Another feature alerts users if a device contacts sites outside its normal patterns, then flags and blocks them. A new application that Opperman calls “pause the internet” may be coveted by frustrated parents.
It allows account holders to shut down any and all device connections from any user.
“It’s getting more complicated in the home with more devices,” Opperman said.
Indeed, market tracker Gartner Inc. forecasts that 20 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020.
D-Link Systems is the North American unit of Taiwan-based D-Link Corp., which generates about $1 billion in annual sales. It’s the sixth-largest consumer electronics maker in OC, employing about 200 here.
Greenwave Partnership
Irvine-based smart technology provider Greenwave Systems Inc. announced a partnership with El Segundo-based startup CUJO AI as it aims to fight cyberattacks on home networks.
CUJO’s software analyzes device behavior through threat intelligence, machine learning and cloud computing. Greenwave’s technology allows devices to talk to each other, letting users easily program LED lighting systems, sensors and other products.
Based on CUJO customer data, a typical household has an average of 14.5 devices. It says its service blocks an average of 50 threats per user, per month. The technology runs in concert with Greenwave’s AXON hardware and software suite, which allows businesses to deploy their own systems to manage services remotely.
“We found a way to augment CUJO IA’s parental control and internet threat analysis using their cloud services with our embedded platform,” said Greenwave Vice President of Product Marketing Roger Gregory. “That collaboration allows us to offer a real security with potentially artificial intelligence.”
The company posted revenue of $45 million in the 12 months through June, up 42% from two years earlier. The jump placed it at No. 46 among companies with $10 million to $100 million in annual sales on last year’s Business Journal list of the fastest-growing private companies. It employs about 75 in Irvine.
Kingston USBs
Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Inc., OC’s largest consumer electronics maker, devoted time during meetings with the members of the media to highlight its encrypted line of USBs for consumer and business customers.
The discussion, which delved into challenges faced by the industry and users, was particularly timely.
In October a USB stick with 2.5 gigabytes of critical data—including sensitive security information on Heathrow Airport and methods used to protect Queen Elizabeth—was found by a pedestrian on a London street and handed to the Sunday Mirror, which reported the incident and the data exposed.
The European Union will enact one of the most stringent data-protection laws in the world on May 25. The regulation will direct how personal data is collected, stored, transmitted and destroyed, requiring consent of the individual to collect data, a detailed list of processed data, and the establishment of a data-protection officer at businesses, among other stipulations that widely expand data-protection rights and commercial compliance.
Fines, levied case-by-case, can run into the tens of millions of dollars when a business fails to comply.
Personal security has gained prominence in recent years as more consumers store more personal data on USB drives and storage cards, from family photos and videos to tax information and passwords.
“It’s good to have that security to protect your personal information,” Kingston spokesperson David Leong said.
Last year the Business Journal estimated the world’s largest memory products maker for computers and other consumer electronics surpassed $6.6 billion in revenue.
Cutting through the noise and clutter of CES, where about 3,900 companies launched products and services, is never easy. This year’s installment, which included Samsung’s monster, 146-inch micro-LED TV, a boxing and virtual reality fitness workout introduced by Floyd Mayweather, and heated, talking toilet seats, was no different.
