As Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure addressed at the TNW conference in Amsterdam, we’re living in a world where everything is becoming connected. From our fridges and washing machines to our baby monitors and home security cameras, our devices are connected to the web and that opens up a whole new kind of online security threat.
F-Secure Sense is the Finnish brand’s answer to data protection and online security in the home — but at a network level. It does this by “securing browser traffic by automatically blocking phishing, intrusive tracking and other malicious attacks”.
It’s their first ever hardware product and using F-Secure’s specialism in privacy and online security, the whole idea behind Sense is to provide a network level of internet security for all of your smart devices — rather than having independent subscriptions for each one.
Unboxing F-Secure Sense
F-Secure Sense setup & first impressions
With F-Secure Sense, all you have to do is plug it into your router, follow the instructions set in the F-Secure Sense application for iOS and Android, and within five minutes you’re all set. It’s incredibly simple.
From that point onwards, all you have to do is connect each of your smart devices to F-Secure Sense’s WiFi instead of your existing home router. (You can connect as many or as few devices as you want to Sense or your existing router; both networks will still work.)
Each device you add will be registered on the Sense app, even giving you data like MAC and IP addresses, the device’s manufacturer, how many threats and trackers were blocked, and even the ability to completely block the internet on the device. Useful if you have children and you want to restrict internet — or more specifically WiFi — access after a certain time.
From a design point of view, considering it’s their first hardware product, I’m pleasantly surprised at how nice F-Secure Sense actually looks. It’s a solid router, and with an all-white glossy plastic finish and LEDs to only show the time, Sense is likely to look great in any home.
What do you think of F-Secure Sense?
I think F-Secure Sense has a lot of potential, particularly when they add more granular controls into their app like website blacklisting/whitelisting. But even for now, I think it’s the kind of product most households with smart devices need. It’s stupidly simple to set up, looks great and most importantly, F-Secure Sense will make the process of protecting your data and privacy easier.
