Akita, has raised approximately $700,000 crowdfunding on Kickstarter. With 7000 plus backers, the startup promises to provide a layer of privacy and security for your smart home.
Instant Privacy for Smart Homes
The device performs three core activities i.e. scans connected gadgets/devices, blocks compromised device,s and notifies the users of known issues. Akita comes with full support and help desk monitoring powered by Axius.
This device connects to a LAN port on users’ home router. The startup describes the device working as follows:
“Akita uses a custom form of WiFi sniffing to detect questionable packets and send them to our servers to be analyzed (this is why the hardware can run on low memory/CPU, because it’s mainly a cloud-based system). Once the packets are determined to be malicious, a command is sent from our servers back to the Akita device; this includes custom protocol commands to disconnect the device from the network router.“
Akita’s Kickstarter received significant backing (both in terms o the number of backers and funds raised from the campaign), though, it only aimed to raise $30,000 initially.
The rise in popularity of privacy and network security devices is understandable. A home network, with several connected devices, need robust protections. That’s where other startups like Dojo and F-Secure also promise to secure network traffic and identify rouge devices.
Readers might visit the Postscapes Connected Device Security guide to understand how other devices in the same niche work and how Akita stacks up against its competitors.
