SAN FRANCISCO—Security company F-Secure confirms to PCMag that its IoT security device, the F-Secure Sense, will ship in the second quarter of 2017.
The news came from F-Secure's Chief Research Office, Mikko Hyppönen, at an event here for the RSA Conference, which gathers security professionals from around the world to show off new products and services to a primarily corporate audience. F-Secure, however, is perhaps better known for its consumer products.
F-Secure Sense was originally announced in November 2015 as an Internet of Things device intended to protect consumers from malware and other cyber threats at the network level. It joins a cadre of such devices, from the Bitdefender Box (an updated version of which is coming soon) to Norton's stylish geodesic Core device, which serves as a security device and a router.
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As seen in promotional materials, the Sense is a tall, sleek device with a parallelogram footprint. One face is a time and temperature display, which is unique among such devices. Once installed, you can manage the devices connected to your network from a mobile app, similar to the scheme seen with Google Wifi. But the Sense is more than just another network device. Traffic to and from all connected devices—which includes computers, mobile devices, IoT devices, smart TVs, smart fridges, game consoles, and so on—passes through the Sense. The device uses F-Secure's security tools to ensure that nothing suspicious is trying to reach your devices, and that nothing dangerous is trying to communicate out to the Web.
According to F-Secure, the device will cost $199 up front, with a one-year subscription to the Sense service; it's $96 per year after that. The device reportedly will function as a standalone router, and supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz, 5GHz. It will be powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU, 512MB DDR3 RAM, and 1GB of Flash storage.
The device is currently available for pre-order; the website lists a ship date at the end of H1 2017.