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Netgear, the networking hardware giant, announced several new cybersecurity and privacy features for one of its most popular offerings. The Netgear Armor security product, embedded into routers like Nighthawk and Orbi, will now detect threats using a method designed specifically for smart appliances.

The new features have data protection capabilities that prevent the transfer of login information, banking details, or other information that could identify you over encrypted networks.

There is also anomaly detection, powered by machine learning, to monitor how the devices you connect to your network usually work. Anything out of the ordinary gets blocked.

What else will Netgear Armor do?

Netgear Armor will also attempt to protect smart devices from bots and brute-force attacks while preventing DDoS (denial-of-service attacks) and protecting networks from malicious exploits-backed intrusions.

Netgear Armor is available to customers who have specific Wi-Fi 6 routers. The company added that it plans to release the tools to more users in the coming weeks.

At present, Netgear Armor is free for 30 days and then $99.99 for an annual subscription. President of connected home products and services at Netgear, David Henry, explained that it may overwhelm people to know what is required to keep IoT devices safe, given how many we now have.

An umbrella for all your gadgets

Henry added that the company added the security features after it realized that a new approach to security was needed.

There are new threats created for TVs, smart thermostats, home theatre systems, light switches, gaming consoles, smartphones, smart speakers, security cameras, and other smart home gadgets.

With that in mind and a report by Bitdefender proving that the threats are serious, Netgear built the system into the routers, to ensure that while on a Netgear-powered connection, there is no need for separate solutions for each piece of connected technology.