Small device monitors smart home devices' network security

A new product called Dojo is launching soon to help users protect their smart homes against security threats. There are many smart home devices that have been coming out recently that make security a top priority, but Dojo offers a unique take by monitoring every device connected to a home network and promising to be unhackable.

Dojo consists of two hardware devices. One is a box that physically connects to a router and the other is called pebble, a device that can be moved around the house to give visual cues for when something is amiss on the network. Unlike routers that seek to increase security simply by setting up a firewall and filtering content, Dojo identifies “connected” devices in the home and learns about each device’s behavior so it can detect when something is wrong such as when there is transmission of data to a peculiar source.

Dojo can be controlled through a smartphone app, but it can only have one master user that controls access to the network. This was one weakness of the device, according to TechCrunch, but Dojo Labs CEO Yossi Atias promised the device was very secure because of its design. It achieves a high level of security by being separate from the router with one port that connects to the router and internal hardware that’s been designed by the company itself. “Even if you take it as a hacker and you try to hack into it physically, even by breaking it, there is no way you’d ever get access to its operating system and to its code,” Atias told TechCrunch.

Dojo offers a new way of looking at smart home security by allowing a separate smart device to monitor the other connected devices. Like similar devices, it does require a subscription, but the first year is included in the pre-order price of $99. After that, plans start at $7.99. Smart software can be hard to replicate and once customers use a particular service they like, it can be hard to pull them away. This is part of why companies are going after the IoT market so aggressively. Future opportunity for hardware manufacturers likely lies in making devices that can interact with popular smart home hubs and security devices.