McAfee Brings Voice-Activated Security to Amazon Alexa

BARCELONA—McAfee wants to make smart domicile security equally like shooting fish in a barrel as any other vocalization command: "Alexa, run a security scan of all my connected devices."

At Mobile World Congress, the antivirus and security software company announced the McAfee Secure Home Platform Skill for Amazon Alexa. Soon, by enabling the McAfee skill, Alexa users will be able to manage their connected home's network security and enable parental controls using voice commands.

The catch is that the skill only works if your router is secured with the McAfee Secure Abode Platform, which the company appear at CES in January. The Internet of Things (IoT) router solution extends McAfee's desktop security to every device on your abode network, and lets you create security profiles for different family members. The McAfee Alexa skill gives customers the power to manage this via vox, rather than using an Android or iOS app.

The McAfee skill volition launch with more than 10 commands for Alexa, according to Gary Davis, Chief Consumer Security Evangelist at McAfee. Davis told PCMag that McAfee chose to get-go with Alexa due to the platform's maturity and popularity, but the company sees this as a testbed for enabling voice-activated security across the smart home landscape.

"You've seeing a massive adoption of these home automation devices with Alexa equally the leader of the pack," said Davis. "Nosotros're looking at this holistically. We started with Alexa, simply devices by Google and Apple are gaining critical mass as well. Nosotros desire to see how the Alexa launch goes and see how many skills nosotros can create, and so speedily re-purpose them for other platforms."

Davis said McAfee has worked directly with Amazon to build a set of skills for greatly simplifying smart home device security. At launch, the McAfee Secure Home Platform Skill will be able to perform device and vulnerability scans, ship infected device notifications, set up individual security controls such as particular times children are immune to exist online, and more. Some of the available commands at launch include:

• "Alexa, ask McAfee how many devices are online right at present"
• "Alexa, ask McAfee to scan my network"
• "Alexa, ask McAfee what is the condition of my network"
• "Alexa, ask McAfee to cake/unblock a specific device"
• "Alexa, inquire McAfee to pause the cyberspace for a specific user"

"You can ask Alexa to tell you what devices you have in your dwelling house, and she'll become through and tell you lot what'south new," said Davis, "You can say 'Hey Alexa, run a vulnerability browse' and information technology might say that this lightbulb still has a default username and password, you should probably change it."

McAfee said its Alexa skill has gone through Amazon's certification process, just the availability will vary depending on hardware partners since the skill requires McAfee Secure Home Platform software on your router. The company does expect one partner router, the D-Link AC2600, to be available by the 2d half of 2022.

About Rob Marvin

Rob Marvin is PCMag's Associate Features Editor. He writes features, news, and trend stories on all manner of emerging technologies. Beats include: startups, business and venture capital, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, AI, augmented and virtual reality, IoT and automation, legal cannabis tech, social media, streaming, security, mobile commerce, Thou&A, and entertainment. Rob was previously Banana Editor and Associate Editor in PCMag's Business section. Prior to that, he served as an editor at SD Times. He graduated from Syracuse University'due south South.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. You lot tin can likewise observe his business concern and tech coverage on Entrepreneur and Fox Business. Rob is too an unabashed nerd who does occasional amusement writing for …

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