Plume hits the UK market

Mesh wifi specialist Plume has launched itself onto the UK market, bringing with it a new service which aims to make consumer IOT more secure.

After success in the US market, eyes have been cast across the pond for Plume’s subscription service which it is describing as ‘adaptive wifi’. Not only does the company promise to improve wifi signal throughout the home, it is targeting security fears which may be arising due to more devices being connected to the internet.

“The ever-increasing demand for smart home performance coupled with the proliferation of IoT devices means connectivity and security are merging and must be addressed jointly and comprehensively,” said Fahri Diner, Plume’s CEO.

“Leveraging our scale as the operator of perhaps the largest software-defined-network in the world, our learnings gathered from a vast population of connected devices uniquely positions Plume to offer the most effective anomaly-based protection of IoT devices.”

Plume claims its software detects and monitors all connected devices around the home, learning patterns of normal device behaviour across a large population of similar devices, hoping to spot abnormalities in real time and immediately act to protect users. The power of this security feature does depend on scale, having enough data from similar devices to understand normal behaviour, but it does seem to be heading that direction.

The team is not only boasting of numerous ties ups with companies such as Comcast, Bell Canada, Liberty Global, and Samsung, but by open sourcing the device software middle layer the reach is extended further. As soon as an anomaly is detected in any of the devices on the network, it is immediately quarantined to prevent the risk of spreading the threat throughout the home’s network.

The product itself looks to be a useful innovation but priced at £99 for a starter hardware pack and £99 per year thereon, it might turn off increasingly cash conscious consumers. We suspect the direct-to-consumer model might not be the most successful but bagging a couple of telco partners could be an interesting play as a value-add.