Comcast launches subscription Wi

The add-on subscription is mean to monitor and blocks suspicious activity on all home devices.

With the Consumer Electronics Show underway in Las Vegas, consumers are set to endure a flood of product announcements for connected devices they didn’t know they wanted, creating more potential gateways for home networks to be exploited by hackers.

After all, some 20.4 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020, up from 8.4 billion in 2017, according to projections from the market research firm Gartner. Many of those devices are not manufactured with security in mind, as evidenced by recent cyberattacks.

Now, Comcast is looking to tap into the internet-of-things security market with a new subscription service announced Tuesday.

The company’s xFi Advanced Security is a $5.99-per-month service available to existing Comcast Wi-Fi customers that is meant to monitor all of a network’s devices for suspicious activity, block anything if necessary and alert the customer.

To subscribe, customers must already be renting the company’s Xfinity xFi Advanced Gateway modem, which by default gives them network visibility tools like parental controls, but no active security solutions.

“We want to give customers digital peace of mind for the devices they already own and the confidence to expand and evolve their connected homes knowing that every new camera, voice-assisted speaker or smart thermostat they add will be protected,” said Fraser Stirling, Comcast Cable’s senior vice president of digital home, devices and artificial intelligence, in a press release.

Comcast says customers, once subscribed, don’t need to configure anything, and that the service monitors and protects anything connected to the network, as opposed to programs that protect individual devices.

“While traditional security products are effective at protecting individual devices like laptops and tablets, there’s a growing need for technologies that can protect all the devices on a network at once,” the company said.

The new service essentially brings to customers’ home networks the endpoint security approach that has been aimed at enterprises.

A similar subscription service is offered by Wi-Fi hardware provider Eero. The underlying security platform for Comcast’s service comes from CUJO, an AI-powered network security startup.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure