Where emerging technologies are concerned there are two big ones going mainstream this year, the Internet of Things and Virtual Reality. While big names like Google and Samsung are busy working their way into the market of both, with recent announcements like Daydream confirming as much, it seems as though there’s still some startup magic out there to get the IoT world off the ground. A former Apple and Google employee has recently landed a cool $20 Million investment to help his startup, Afero, deliver on its promise of a more secure Internet of Things platform.
Joe Britt, who has worked for Apple in the 1990s as well as working with Android founder Andy Rubin at both Danger as well as Google has received $20 Million in investments, with IoT leader Samsung making the largest contribution. The idea behind Afero is to do things in IoT slightly different to make things safer and a little more comfortable to use. Britt says that hackers will be able to exploit IoT devices by snooping packets and seeing what sort of devices are on the network, and then figure out where and how to attack. With Afero however, hackers will be confused by longer transmissions as well as irregular intervals which will make it harder to figure out what’s what on the network.
The real magic here however, is the secure radio chip that Afero is working on, which can be added to devices quite easily and will be manufactured by Japanese firm, Murata, and can be added to existing products or designed to be worked into new products. This chip will also allow Afero-equipped items to be controlled via the Cloud as well as directly from a phone. As Samsung has invested in the firm, it’ll be interesting to see just where Afero ends up going in the future. Will it lead to better products from Samsung, or will it lead to IoT products everywhere becoming more safe and secure, no matter what their uses? As is often the case in the world of new technology, we’ll have to wait and see.