CE Pro December 2021 - 23

Networking+Home Control
SECURITY CORNER
TechStarter Champ guardDog Gets Integrators
Tough on Cybersecurity
AS ALWAYS, the Launchpad area - formerly Innovation Alley
- served as a great way for startups to take center stage at
CEDIA Expo and this year was no different. For Launchpad
exhibitor guardDog Solutions, it also led to a parting gift from
CEDIA Expo 2021 of an oversized $5,000 check for winning
this year's TechStarter program.
Cybersecurity specialist guardDog's pitch to the panel of
judges proved impressive in the " Shark Tank " -like style event
at the show, held Sept. 1-3 at the Indiana Convention Center
in Indianapolis.
The Salt Lake City-based company's Kelly Ryan walked
CE Pro through an overview of why she thought guardDog
earned this year's TechStarter top honors and the features that
differentiates its solution for custom integrators, who are still
getting their feet wet in the cybersecurity category as a whole.
" We think we won because we have an amazing technology
that fits into every home, office or commercial enterprise
- everywhere from the luxury home, the everyday home to
the FBI, the military, NSA and everybody in between, " Ryan
enthused during CEDIA Expo.
Other Launchpad exhibitors in Indianapolis included Allterco
Robotics, Autoslide, Blonder Tongue Labs, Dejero, GDC
Technology, Hide-A-Trim, Juke Audio, Kew Labs and Orro.
She highlighted how and why guardDog has approached
the CEDIA channel, which won over TechStarter judges David
Weinstein of Lutron, Tom Doherty of HTSA and Walt Zerbe
of CEDIA.
The company's Protective Cloud Services (PCS) solution
works with its Fido device to protect consumers, small business
owners, and large enterprises against the ever-constant
cyber threats, ransomware hacks, privacy matters and more.
She explains that company founder and CEO Peter Bookman
brought high-level VPN (virtual private network) experience
from his many years in the IT space to guardDog. The
product's origins, she says, stem from a hack that happened
to a financial institution that let its guard down, so to speak,
during an international business trip.
" They got on a Wi-Fi network at a name-brand hotel and
the Wi-Fi was hacked, " Ryan recalls. " It ended up closing that
firm and our CEO took it really personally. That was six years
ago; we've commercially now deployed our products, and we
are ready to hit the roads running to have dealers sign up. "
Ryan outlines the company's cybersecurity product as an
overlay device in the network chain, and notes that for the
residential market in particular privacy is among the biggest
things guardDog protects.
cepro.com
The guardDog CEDIA
Expo 2021 booth featured
a walkthrough demo of
the TechStarter winner's
cybersecurity interface.
Kelly Ryan of guardDog
accepted the oversized
check while standing with
judges (from left) Tom
Doherty, David Weinstein
and Walt Zerbe, plus Emerald's
Jason McGraw.
" I think that's the most important thing in today's technology
world, " Ryan says, noting that research finds the average
home has 37 IoT devices. That's a lot of potential traffic and
open doors for hackers targeting the smart home sector.
" We are the only company that protects IoT devices without
anyone downloading any software or anything else, " she says.
The device sits in an overlay that goes on a home's router,
and once it's plugged in, " Within 15 minutes everything that's
within 5,000 square feet of that router is going to be protected
- your cellphone, your smart refrigerator, your smart vacuum,
thermostats, lighting, whatever is connected as an IoT device. "
Ryan says the user interface is easy to understand for the
consumer, while at the same time guardDog has provided the
same for the pro channel.
" We have a very sophisticated interface that our CEDIA
pro dealers will be able to manage up to 50,000 consumers
at any time, " she notes. " So it's expandable, it's easy and it's
inexpensive. "
In the company's CEDIA Expo booth, Ryan showed via the
dashboard navigation how guardDog recently handled a suspected
cyber attack in 47 milliseconds. " That's how fast we're
getting ... it's crazy. " -Arlen Schweiger
December 2021 CE Pro | 23
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CE Pro December 2021

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