Why Can’t Smart Home Device Security be Smarter?

More than 83 million U.S. households have at least one smart device, and most of us have more than one. In fact, in the U.S., on average we have 11 devices connected to our home networks, according to one study.

Take a quick tally of your own devices. Smartphones? Check. Smart TV(s), Roku, or similar devices? Check. Tablets, laptops, and/or desktops? Check. E-book readers? Smart speakers? Other devices with Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri? Google Nest thermostat? The list goes on and is only going to grow.

The bad news is that it’s often difficult to understand how your network router interacts with the various devices in your home. Typically, each device has its own web page or smartphone app from which to configure, manage, and monitor security settings—unless it’s an Internet of Things (IoT) device such as a smart light bulb or appliance that may not even have any user-apparent security. Even tech-savvy, security-conscious users can get frustrated trying to keep track of it all.

Thankfully, there is a smarter way to manage security across connected smart devices. Trend Micro Home Network Security (HNS) provides an easy-to-use security solution to oversee all the devices on your home network.

Finally, something that’s easy to manage

As our homes get smarter and more connected, network security should become friendlier to users, eliminating the need to set up a complicated configuration or read a technical report. Trend Micro makes it easy to manage all of your household smart devices through a single app on a mobile phone:

• You can use the HNS smartphone app to grant or block access to new computers, phones, tablets, or smart home devices entering your network. You can monitor and manage your home network from anywhere, anytime.

• Trend Micro HNS equips the home network with an extra layer of protection and offers visibility into smart device security status including threats, vulnerabilities, and suspicious behavior.

• Parents can use HNS to monitor and manage their kids’ access to the internet and devices, and to help them build up healthy digital habits. Plus, you can install Trend Micro Guardian, an app that works with the Trend Micro HNS station to extend internet safety and protection from your home network to any Wi-Fi or mobile network. Once Guardian is installed on your child’s device and paired with the HNS station, the supported internet safety rules you apply on the HNS app will work on any network the child’s device connects to away from home.

• HNS will tip you off to default or weak passwords on your network devices, system vulnerabilities, and privacy and network access violations.

Simple to set up

Setup is a breeze. Simply plug the HNS Station into your wireless router and a wall socket, download the mobile app, pair the app and the HNS Station—and your home network is immediately protected.

Once it’s up and running, HNS uses advanced, enterprise-grade Intrusion Prevention technology to sense and block network attacks before they get to your devices. Your connected devices are automatically scanned for vulnerabilities to help you make sure hackers can’t get into your network.

HNS taps into Trend Micro’s world-class AI security system to protect your home network and all the devices on it from a wide range of threats, including network intrusions, malicious websites and files, and intranet or internet-based malicious behavior.

So yes, finally there is a smarter way to manage home network security, no matter how many devices you plug into the network. Smart device owners can scan their networks for connected devices and potential risks for free, without an HNS Station, by downloading the Trend Micro Home Network Security app.