The US home improvement chain Homedepot is investing 50 million US dollars in the IoT developer Afero. Together, they want to develop secure applications for private and industrial users.
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IoT: new, exciting, risky
The Internet of Things is currently the center of attention for society as a whole. Promising visions for the present and future are encountering more and more security problems. Originally defined as the totality of all devices connected to the Internet, it is now understood to mean systems whose components are able to exchange data with each other in real time. In the private sector, this includes fitness wristbands and watches, virtual assistants and intelligent lighting in networked homes. In the industrial sector, this technology is more likely to be used in the monitoring of production processes and delivery routes, the maintenance of machines and the securing of constant supplies.
Internet of Things: too many unsecured connections
Industry experts predict that by 2025, some 75 billion IoT-enabled devices will be connected to the network. In addition to the volume, which is already hard to keep track of, it is above all the widely varying quality of the connections that worries the experts. Not only does hardly anyone pay attention to which systems are connected to which network. In many cases, maintenance also leaves a lot to be desired. For example, more and more private end devices are being connected to professional or even official networks, which are either not secured at all or only inadequately secured against access from the outside. After all, the latest gadgets may seem inexpensive at first. But if regular updates and patches are skimped on, the costs are often many times higher in the event of damage, as the numerous ransomware attacks in recent years have clearly demonstrated.
Afero: Secure IoT for all
The Afero company, which was founded by former software and hardware developers of the well-known global corporations Google, Apple, Netflix, Amazon and Twitter, has dedicated itself to the task of creating all-encompassing and, above all, secure IoT solutions for all users. To this end, they offer turnkey technologies that can be optimized for specific customers. The technology built into their products is based on secured and intelligent Bluetooth modules, extensible clouds and individualized tools with which users can design their own systems.
Home Depot: Investment in smart home security
The home improvement chain hopes its multi-million dollar investment in Afero will primarily improve the security architecture of smart homes. The primary concern was to meet customer demand for a broader base for a variety of devices. In contrast to the usual practice of converting Linux systems for such purposes, the company opted here for a solution that can also support all other operating systems. This not only enables secure and fast connections to be established. With their elegant implementations, they even offer developers and their customers the ease of use that they apparently lacked elsewhere so far.
