John Wu, Gryphon: “connected devices add a door for some hacker to come into your home”

As our lives majorly shift online, new cyber challenges arise: from security risks of connected devices to the lack of parental control online.

Essentially, all connected devices are a cybersecurity risk in their own regard, offering threat actors a possibility of finding their way into the victim’s home. But it’s not just connected devices that pose potential security risks to users. As such, parents have to worry about their children stumbling upon inappropriate content, and finding a balance between parental control and effective security is a hard one to strike.

We reached out to John Wu, CEO and Co-Founder at Gryphon, to talk about the company’s approach to making childrens’ online experiences safe, as well as providing security solutions for your connected home.

Tell us more about your story. What inspired you to create Gryphon?

It was an incident with my daughter during the time when Frozen had just come out. She was on her iPad searching for princesses and accidentally pulled up some inappropriate content. We have too many ways of accessing the Internet but not enough control or visibility as to what comes in and what goes out.

What main issues do your products help solve?

Giving you an easy way to protect your home network from inappropriate content and hacking, as well and providing you with the best privacy.

Since Gryphon routers operate using mesh Wi-Fi, could you tell us more about this technology? How does it differ from traditional routers?

Mesh allows you to link two or more Wi-Fi routers together to create a larger network. The advantages are the ease of setup, automatic handoff without dropping, larger coverage, and faster throughput for all your connected devices.

How do you think the pandemic affected the cybersecurity industry? Did you add any new features to your services as a result?

Because of the increase in home network usage driven by the pandemic, cyber crimes have increased more than threefold, and hackers are increasingly targeting the home network. Unlike typical routers, Gryphon is an intelligent firewall and adds a layer of network protection to make your home network less vulnerable.

Besides implementing various security measures, what other actions can parents take to help their kids maintain a healthy relationship with modern devices?

Gryphon is a tool for parents, but communication with your kids and letting them know why you are protecting them from some of the Internet dangers is extremely important. Gryphon allows you to set schedules and time limits to help develop healthy Internet and device habits. Also, parents can help provide alternatives such as sports or taking a walk around the neighborhood.

What are the most common misconceptions people tend to have regarding Internet security?

People don’t understand that if your connected BBQ grill gets hacked, it doesn’t just ruin your dinner. That BBQ grill can be a launching pad for a more serious breach, such as your identity. Every time you add a connected device to your network, you are adding a door for some hacker to come into your home.

What would you consider to be the biggest security threats surrounding IoT devices?

Just the sheer number of connected IoT devices being added and the lack of proper security testing for these devices.

In the age of remote work and online learning, what are the essential security measures organizations should implement?

Organizations need to provide more education about the security threats. Be aware that there are now more threats due to the pandemic. Make sure you are deploying the best practices such as the use of a VPN for work, don’t click on links you don’t know. Use multi factor authentication where possible. Also, look at hardening your home Wi-Fi with something like Gryphon, because that’s becoming a larger threat surface due to the work at home trend.

And finally, would you like to share what’s next for Gryphon?

We’ve just recently launched our Gryphon AX that supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard: 40% faster with the same level of advanced security and parental controls. Available at www.gryphonconnect.com