Smart Home cybersecurity gets fully mobile with the newly redesigned, expanded Avira Home Guard
Tettnang, Germany, November 11, 2019 - Avira Home Guard makes it simple to assess your home network security, with its ever-growing assortment of smart devices – right on the device you hold in your hand or on your lap.
Avira Home Guard is a free app that helps you live more easily and securely in your smart home. Its three major functionalities include identifying all devices on your Wi-Fi network, checking for open or unsecured ports, and testing internet speed.
Avira Home Guard has now been expanded to include an iOS variant alongside the previous Android mobile app and the Windows version. By expanding Home Guard to include all three major operating systems, Avira is making its network analysis and security recommendations easier to use at any time and with almost any device. “With each new device we connect to our home networks, we’re unknowingly entrusting companies with our digital traces. We believe everybody should be able to see what devices they have on their networks and how their data is handled, in an easy and simple manner. At Avira, we’re fighting hard for this essential right in the world of connectivity. Home Guard is a key product in our mission” said Andrei Petrus, Avira Director of IoT. “By adding iOS and updating the Android product, we are empowering the vast majority of online people to get an easy free look at the security and privacy issues on their home network.”
Your house is getting smarter
The size of the average smart home is growing. In the first five months of 2019, Avira Home Guard scanned more than 3 million networks in over 30 countries and found a global average of 8 IoT devices per network. Not all nations were sized the same, at least when it comes to home networks. The UK took the lead position with more than 12 devices per network, far outpacing the global average. American households in the USA were also above average with average of 11 devices per network as was Italy with 9. Surprisingly, both Germany and France had home networks smaller than the global average, checking in at 7 devices per network, respectively. This can only mean there’s a steep growth ahead.
The smart conundrum
But it’s not just the sheer number of smart devices out there, it’s also a question of what these devices can be doing in your home and what information about you they are sending back to their masters. Smart devices have a deserved poor reputation for security issues thanks to default passwords and opaque update policies. Smart devices aren’t very privacy conscious either, allowing trackers in and sending out a huge amount of data – often unencrypted – about your online life. Even worse, it’s often not clear how many of these smart devices are on your network (some of which might belong to your next-door neighbor), who they are exchanging data with, and whether this outflow of your personal data is really needed.
Do a triple play with Avira Home Guard
Avira Home Guard provides you with three major benefits as it tackles the issues on your network.
- Maps out your Wi-Fi network – Identifies every device connected to your smart home network, including laptops, phones, as well as smart thermostats, smart TVs, baby monitors and internet connected appliances.
- Scans all detected devices for security issues – Looks for open or unsecured ports which could be used by a hacker to penetrate your network and spy on you.
- Checks your Wi-Fi connection – Home Guard tests the Wi-Fi speed of your home network, displaying download and upload speeds, and ping latency.
Get Avira Home Guard today
Avira Home Guard is a completely free app and can be downloaded from App Store, Play Store or from Avira website.