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Norton Announces Core, a Smart Router To Protect Domestic IoT Devices (cnet.com)
fiannaFailMan writes: Norton has announced the launch of a smart router designed to protect connected home devices from intrusions. The Symantec-owned company says the device aims to keep safe up to 20 devices connected to it, including Windows computers, Macs, phones, tablets or any internet-of-things devices, in real time. Norton Core, shaped a little like a geodesic dome, can isolate an infected device from the rest of your network to prevent the spread of any malware. Some of the technical specifications include a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, 1MB of system memory and 4GB of flash memory, and the latest 4x4 AC2600 Wi-Fi standard, with a top speed on the 5GHz band of 1.73 megabits per second and up to 800Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. It also features four Gigabit LAN ports and can cover between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet.
So I guess it's acceptable for this to let practically everything by while slowing down the network to a crawl?
1) Install Norton security router.
2) Discover that your electricity bill is now $3000 per month and every device that's connected to it runs verrrrryyy slowwwwly.
3) Attempt to remove it from your home, and find that no matter how many times you do so, bits of it are still left under your couch, inside the walls, glued to the ceiling...
4) Realize that removing it from your home properly requires complete demolition and ground-up rebuilding.
No thanks.
So the attackers will just have to buy one of these to make sure their malware passes, just like they do already with desktop AV? I guess that's good for Norton's bottom line.
That's so...1989.
Does it have the Peter Norton bitmap on the case or packaging? That's an essential part of any 'Norton' product.
How many days till we see an advisory for Norton core enabling attackers a method of leveraging Norton core to compromise systems it is supposed to be protecting?
http://fortune.com/2016/06/29/...
Also apparently if you don't renew your subscription your Norton paper egg turns into a Norton paper weight as they disable all access controls on spite not just the scanning/heuristic subscriptions but basic ACL shit too.
FAQ this:
What happens if I don’t renew my subscription?
"If you don’t renew the Norton Core Security Plus subscription in the second year, Norton Core will continue to function as a high performance router. All network, IoT, and device level security, plus parental control features will be unavailable if the subscription is not renewed."
Yeah, thanks, but I prefer my equipment to function for more than a year.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
I stayed at a hotel recently that required scanning a QR code to get on the internet. So, my laptop had no internet that night. I didn't stay at the hotel a second night.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I had to ditch my Netgear Nighthawk Router because it only supported 64 WiFi devices. I have close to 100 WiFi devices (mostly IoT) in my house at this time. I switched to Google WiFi Mesh Router because it can actually handle all the devices I have.
But here's a short list of most of what is connected to my WiFi Network and I plan on adding more in the future:
Haiku Homes Lights (40), Switches (10), and Fans (7)
Mitsubishi Ductless Heating System (4 Headers)
Ecobee (controls a Boiler)
Nest Thermostat (controls a forced air HVAC system)
Nest Cameras (4 Outdoor, 3 Indoor)
Nest Smoke and CO Alarms (4)
TP-Link Switches (2 lights, 5 others)
GE Dishwasher
Samsung Washer + Dryer
Sense Electrical Monitor
Amazon Echos (2 regular, 2 dots)
Yamaha Receivers (2)
Samsung TVs (4)
Google Chromcast (4)
Apple TV (2)
Amazon Fire (2)
Harmony Ultimates (2 Remotes, 2 Hubs)
My guess is people who are actively pursuing Smart Home Technologies will need much higher than 20 device capacity.
I trust their hardware like I trust their antivirus...
g0t b33r?
The Norton Core comes in titanium gold and granite gray.
I hate marketing people.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
This is just a home router and firewall. It isn't like a whole class of systems already do this.
Maybe it adds deep packet inspection, or gives you reports on the exact attacks that have been blocked - but so what? What exactly does the average home user need to know about blocking the hundreds of attacks your average home based IP per day?
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
What they collect (e.g. everything including Your F***ing passwords...)
Wireless network SSID/password (encrypted);
* Device information, including any Personal Information you include when assigning device name(s) and, if provided,
the name of the person to whom the device is assigned, and device user agent data/app user agent data, including
device type, manufacturer, and model; operating system; and IP address;
* Data regarding device usage, including data regarding the time of last device use, internet usage time for each
connected device, and gateway logs detailing network connection activities;
* Website addresses for parental control settings, including blocked websites, visited websites, and time and content
filter information;
* Personal Information you may enter into your profile, including username and your picture;
* Personal Information you provide for customer support and connectivity assistance, such as userID, name, role,
policies, and device information;
* Attempts to download executable files/mobile apps;
* Shipping address and related information.
What they do with it...
* Norton Core uses Google Analyticsâ(TM) Measurement Protocol with IP anonymization parameters to transmit critical error
information (including IP address) and information on your feature usage services (âoeNorton Core Telemetryâ) to Google
Analytics, which is not owned or operated by Symantec.
* Understanding product usage and alerts to inform you of better ways to benefit from a productâ(TM)s features
* Statistical analysis of product deployment
* Providing us with business and marketing information
How they use it...
* We are a global organization and may transfer Your Data to other countries, including countries that may have less protective data protection laws than the country in which you are located.
* may be disclosed in connection with any proposed or actual sale or other transfer of some or all assets of Symantec in the event of a reorganization, merger, acquisition, or sale of our assets;
* may be disclosed and shared if we are ...Here they are clearly saying anyone in law enforcement can simply request data and receive it even if not required by law...
required to do so by law or in response to a request from law enforcement authorities;
* To promote research, awareness, detection, or prevention of security risks, Symantec may disclose Your Data to relevant public
and private entities such as cybersecurity or identity theft research organizations and security software vendors.
Apparently also customers responsibility to make sure their down line users and guests are informed their data is also being collected. Note that "your disclosure" actually means going to the management portal and configuring a new device.
It is your responsibility to ensure that any disclosure by you to Symantec of Personal Information of your users or third parties is
in compliance with applicable privacy and data security laws, including informing users and third parties that you are providing
their Personal Information to Symantec, informing them of how it will be transferred, used, or processed, and gathering
appropriate consents and other legal measures required for such transfer, use, or processing.
5GHz isn't shitty.
It is on this router if it only does 1.73Mbps. I'm also curious about the 1MB of RAM. (Other pages indicate that it's 1.73Gbps and 1GB of RAM, which is in line with modern routers.) Another correction, it's got 4 gigabit ports total, 3 LAN and 1 WAN. This comes as a huge shock, but it seems the editors can't be bothered to proofread anything.
no that is what is left over for user apps after all of the Norton bloat.
You... didn't think to call the front desk and have them read you the credentials? _Seriously_?
They told me I needed to use the QR code.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
They might as well have offered it in Titanium Gold and Gold Titanium.
Reminds me of when I had a 1969 VW Beetle. They have one double-arrow dashboard indicator for the turn signal, with only one bulb. A friend once asked how do you know if it's indicating left or right? I said, completely seriously, for left it blinks off first then on and for right it blinks on first then off. He stared at me looking really confused. I went through it twice more before he realized it was BS. Good times...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Make sure the passwords are not on some support forum or default pass, user, password.
Buy CCTV or some other vital IoT that will talk to your cell phone without needing the internet when altered.
Remove all the things from the network that need the "internet" when not at home. Be able to chart, log, respond to changing network conditions when at home.
Get away from wifi and upgrade to ethernet to connect only important devices.
Get some AV to test your network. Something like https://www.avast.com/f-home-n... to see if any issues need fixing.
Get a good secure router. Don't keep it internet connected when it is unattended. If a very important device needs to call out e.g. CCTV, try a cell network.
The router attacks are looking for a device thats got default login name/password for now.
Until device makers care about security, do users really need an IoT thats junk and can swarm the net to always be connected?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Depends on the kind of security you're looking for. I'm generally a fan of the Asus family of routers that support the Padavan firmware - they all support DD-WRT as well if that's your thing.
What makes this router something warranting a slashdot discussion is the fact that it does unified threat management, something that tends to require an appliance beyond a simple router/switch/AP combo. The cheapest ones with integrated Wi-Fi are from Sonicwall, but they're all kinds of awkward to have in a home setting (NAT translation is a pain, no UPnP, etc.). Fortinet also has some prosumer units, but good luck getting one - it tends to involve a whole lot of middlemen and quotes and all that other sales red tape that's quite obnoxious.
If you're cool with a more DIY solution, break it out. A gigabit switch is more or less a gigabit switch; 8-port units are $40 or less now. Most routers can function as a simple access point (aforementioned Asus being among them), but if you're looking for multiple access points, Ubiquiti is my favorite as the $130 access points do AC1750, there's a central configuration utility, they handle roaming and frequency hopping quite well, and they're a whole lot less expensive than most of the alternatives.
As far as the router itself, get a desktop and a second NIC, and you've got choices. I'm an Untangle fan myself, and $5/month for the home version gets you the kitchen sink for your home - virus checking, content filtering, ad blocking, spam filtering, multi-wan, VPN, the whole shooting match, in the simplest configuration console I've used. pfSense (and its recent fork opnsense) is free, and gives nearly all the same features, but in a somewhat more Spartan interface with more manual control required. Sophos has an excellent UTM, though it has a 50-endpoint limit and resembles Sonicwall in its NAT configuration. Other honorable mentions worth exploring would be Endian (simplest past Untangle), Smoothwall (best QoS), and IPFire (runs on a 133mhz Pentium), again, depending on the feature set you're looking for.
Happy exploring!