By Ravi Karthik
As daily living gets increasingly digital, from shopping and banking to education and downtime, the risk of cyberattacks is growing at the same rapid clip. According to NCRP and CFCFRMS, India alone witnessed over 36 lakh cyber fraud attacks in 2024, a 206% increase from the previous year, leading to losses amounting to Rs 22,845.73 crore. Nearly 369.01 million malware attacks occurred in the span of a mere year, that is, nearly 700 per minute, an Indian cyber threat report suggests.
With the continued integration of technology into our homes and daily lives, cybercrime can no longer be abstract or theoretical; it is intimate. They are entering right into our homes. With the added presence of smart TVs, voice assistants, and IoT devices in homes, the threat is no longer just the theft of data; it is compromised spaces within homes. Even then, cybersecurity is a tech afterthought in most homes where it should be a necessity.
How Smart Devices Open Doors for Cybercriminals
The average home today has more connected devices than people, but that convenience comes with some challenges. Smart gadgets often arrive with default usernames and passwords that are hardly changed. Their firmware rarely updates automatically, leaving them open to known exploits.
On top of that, many of these devices operate without end-to-end encryption, transmitting sensitive information in a way that’s easy to intercept.
Most homes still run all their devices, whether it’s a work laptop, a smart TV, or a tablet, on the same basic, unsegmented network. That makes it far easier for a threat to spread. If one device gets compromised, the rest are left exposed.
It might seem unlikely that someone could reach your bank account through your television, but that’s exactly the kind of risk connected living now brings. In a world where even your fridge is online, every device becomes a possible doorway.
Smart Home Network: The First Line of Defence
Many families rely on a basic router and a simple password to manage their home internet. But that setup is like leaving your front door unlocked. The real front line of cybersecurity is no longer your antivirus software; it’s your home WiFi system. This is where SmartWiFi with enterprise-grade security makes a meaningful difference. Its firewall filtering screens out the noise and rejects unsafe connections while letting standard connections operate normally with no disruption.
However, there is just no such thing as avoiding breaches by blocking unsafe connections alone. Cyber attackers can also gain entry into devices by planting malware. It could be a file download or a link that seemed fine at the time. SmartWiFi systems keep scanning for such activities in real time. If something doesn’t look right, it’s flagged and blocked immediately.
Network segmentation is another method SmartWiFi uses to protect against compromised devices. It separates the home network into a number of isolated layers, typically ‘subnetworks’. What that means is the home devices and the guest networks are not using the same connection. Isolating them reduces the threat risk and makes movements laterally between the devices much harder for attackers.
But the increased level of security does not mean compromising user experience. SmartWiFi balances what is important in the moment while making sure your connection does what you need it to do. A virtual conference can’t be delayed, while a system update can be held in the background. And it allows homes with children to manage the screen time and block content with its built-in parental controls. You don’t have to purchase a separate app or subscribe to an additional service.
More Than Just Streaming
Internet security is no longer a separate concern; it is an integral part of modern living. In a digital-first world, where even household appliances like refrigerators and baby monitors are connected, the boundary between online and offline continues to fade. That shift changes what the home network really is.
It’s not just there for streaming or browsing anymore; it’s become the first thing standing between your household and a growing list of online threats. In that sense, SmartWiFi isn’t just about better coverage or speed.
It plays a bigger role now. It keeps working in the background, quietly helping protect everything that’s connected, without interrupting how you live day to day.
(The author is the Chief Marketing Officer of ACT Fibernet)
Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP Network Pvt. Ltd.
