Mail Box Rule and Petition for Discretionary Review
Bitdefender Box
MSRP $199.00
"While the BitDefender Box wows with its lofty ambitions and sleek blueprint, there only isn't plenty functionality to warrant the price."
Pros
- Gorgeous design, looks at habitation anywhere
- Provides moderate security for IoT devices
- Protects against phishing and electronic mail attacks
Cons
- Didn't protect against packaged malware
- Setup was far from "plug and play"
- Costly for what it does
A few weeks back, I was a scrap excited most a new product that would be hitting the security scene in the next couple of months. Pocket-size, white, and unassuming, the BitDefender Box was on my peak five list of most anticipated releases this year, and represented (in my optics at least) a possible revolution in the world of personal Cyberspace security.
In that gush-fest, I listed several ways in which traditional antivirus solutions had failed to keep pace with the constantly evolving landscape of Internet security, and with great exuberance began to usher in the era of hardware-assisted protection every bit the next nifty hope for personal privacy on the internet.
With 70 percent of all Internet of Things devices vulnerable to attack according to a recent report from HP, the numbers don't lie: the race to find a universal way to protect the devices of the future is on, and now it's simply a matter of who can do it right the first time around.
The start into that fray is the Box, a "network attached peripheral" from the people at BitDefender which is being touted every bit the next step in the standing evolution of what the visitor refers to as the "Security of Things."
Said to scan all your data and traffic in real time, the Box will supposedly create an bulletproof wall betwixt you, your appliances, and the rest of the Net that keeps your family unit and their devices safe. Does the inaugural entry in this new class of router hold upward to the pressure, or fumble under the weight of the expectations preceding information technology?
Easily on review
The Box itself
Powered past only a single-cadre 400MHz MIPS microprocessor, 16MB Flash retentiveness, and 64MB DDR2 RAM, the Box itself is a beautiful piece of hardware for your home. It looks like something straight off Apple's conveyor belts, a pattern determination we're sure is anything simply unintentional.
Measuring just 1.one by 3.5 by three.5 inches and clocking in on the scale at only 3.25 ounces, the box is and so unassuming yous'd barely even know it's in that location unless someone explicitly pointed it out. It also supports 802.11n Wi-Fi, and then it doesn't demand to be connected to a mass of Ethernet cables.
What it does
"This doesn't sound any different from a router's onboard firewall," you might be grumbling to your screen correct now. "I've already heard of this technology, don't enterprise solutions already accept care of this on their own?"
Yeah, the Box is, at least on the surface, a router with a built-in firewall. It checks traffic as information technology comes in, and if it spots anything fishy, redirects either the malware or you to a secure environs where diagnostic changes tin can be made.
The race to discover a universal style to protect the devices of the future is on.
The issue with this classical approach — equally I've covered in our previous slice — is that it fails to account for scanning traffic against a database that'due south being updated by the cloud in real fourth dimension. Instead of having to click the "update" push on your antivirus' definitions library every 15 minutes, the Box automatically monitors threat archives to cross reference against your traffic equally you actively surf.
If this nevertheless sounds familiar (like anti-phishing features in Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, and others), you're however a bit off base. What BitDefender is really targeting is devices that can't protect themselves, simply still contain valuable data about our lives. I'thousand talking about the wonderful globe of the "Internet of Things."
Setup, or "How to lose a customer in 10 hours"
In several interviews on the topic of the Box, BitDefender said that its device is a "100% plug and play experience." You unplug your modem from your current router, plug the Box in, and run one more wire dorsum to the router to get the connection live. And then, at to the lowest degree in theory, you should be ready to go.
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
In practice, the installation of the Box was anything but piece of cake. Kickoff, the app (available for iOS and Android) I installed on both my iPhone 5 and Nexus 7 were useless, as neither were able to find the Box on my Wi-Fi network. I tried restarting my modem, router, the Box, and the Box app a number of times separately and in one case all together to try and get a connection setup, and it was only after several calls to their back up team (one representative named Alex who was answered from a Google Voice number) that I was able to get the Box and the app talking to each other on my dwelling network.
The reason for my troubles, I was told, is that the Box "wasn't configured to back up my setup," and that I would need to remove my Netgear R8000 Nighthawk to achieve total protection. This is a popular loftier-terminate router, and so Bitdefender's suggestion it should simply be removed from the network wasn't platonic.
Getting a pre-packaged Comcast router running is hard plenty for most people, so like shooting fish in a barrel setup is absolutely critical. Unfortunately, this looks to exist an area that Bitdefender hasn't perfected just yet.
Non much of a router
Of grade, I may not have had a problem with getting the Nighthawk out of the picture if the Box was whatsoever kind of a decent router on its own . Once the Netgear was taken out of the loop, I couldn't snag a betoken any further than nigh x feet effectually the device, and even then information technology would but announced if I was pointed in i of three very specific directions.
The Box looks like something straight off Apple's conveyor belts, a conclusion I'one thousand sure is anything but unintentional.
I live in a large house, and then my router needs to get betoken to 2 separate floors and a basement, a feat which isn't easily achieved by any simple hub. The main reason I bought the expensive Nighthawk router is because its tri-band spectrum was powerful enough to push a connection to every corner of my habitation.
The Box on the other hand heavily favors form over office, with its sleek, Apple-esque minimalism that features no antennas or extenders on the side. With the Box lonely I was able to go a signal in my living room, but every bit shortly as I went upstairs or to the basement, Wi-Fi dropped out similar clockwork. Clearly, trying to utilize the Box as a network'southward only router is unlikely to work.
During regular browsing and speed tests with the Box interim as an intermediary between the Nighthawk and our modem, I clocked a loss of effectually 30 percent compared to the Nighthawkl. While this result was somewhat negligible on my information plan (lx megabits per second every bit opposed to 90) this effect might exist a chip more noticeable for users who are all the same on DSL or can't afford the higher tier of cable options.
Our testing methods
To find out what the Box was capable of I worked with a number of security professionals and members of the product team to carefully control the testing environment. 1 can only be so cautious when setting upwardly a death arena of viruses, malware, and general mayhem and havoc.
I tested the Box using a closed loop system that incorporated several different machines spanning every mutual operating system, every bit well as an IP photographic camera. Our test rigs included an Acer Aspire Switch x running Windows 8.i, a Macbook Pro (2010) running OSX Yosemite ten.10.two, a Toshiba Chromebook running Chrome Os 41.0.22, and finally a PC with Ubuntu fourteen.x.
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
On the mobile front, I had an iPhone v running iOS 8.0.2, and an Asus Nexus 7 Tablet with Lollipop 5.0.ane.
For our testing schedule, I loaded upwardly a series of malicious links, emails, and files that were provided by an contained security testing outfit which opted not to exist named in this review. I threw these threats at the Box on each platform individually, and recorded the results subsequently the infection was either stopped or got through.
To judge the Box's overall effectiveness, I pit it against three main criteria based on what I've been told it's made to shield against:
- Phishing
- Infected Links
- Redirects
And so, how did the Box fare?
Tripping on .Nil
Phishing? Hands handled. Infected links? Piece of cake. Redirects? No problem, go em outta hither!
After a few updates and tweaked configuration settings on behalf of the team at Bitdefender, the Box handled anything I sent its style. Whenever I started to drift into the incorrect lane of the data superhighway, the Box was there with a prompt warning bulletin that told us whatever nonsense I was well-nigh to get into had been blocked, followed by a notification on the mobile app a few moments later.
I had a lot of hopes for this technology, and it'southward disconcerting to see it autumn flat on its face before even making information technology off the starting line.
I'd like to say that was the stop of the story, just as shortly as we incorporated infected payloads hidden in .zip folders into the mix, things started to go a bit more tricky. Though drive-by downloads, phishing attempts, and infected links from emails were all kept safe under the sphere of protection, once I stepped outside the boundary of browser-based baddies, the Box lost whatever shred of effectiveness information technology had to spare.
The prime example of this slip can be found in what happened when I tested general malware against the IP camera, which appears on a habitation network just every bit any other device would. When using one of the mobile devices as an unpacking service, we were able to get an infection through the Box and onto the Android, which then launched a plan to take control of the IP photographic camera.
The Box didn't beep or blip at united states once during the entire procedure, blissfully unaware that hackers had just establish a fashion to peer into our homes without a problem. Because the content beingness transported was countersign protected and sometimes encrypted, the arrangement was only able to scan the data as a unmarried package, which seemed to misfile the Box.
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
This is exactly the kind of "Internet of Things" device Bitdefender promises to protect. However, it besides happens to be the ane device that can't support its own local antivirus, and then when an infected file was both transmitted to and launched on the camera without the Box noticing it slipped through, I was disappointed it had missed in such a crucial surface area of its intended purpose.
A cryptic response
Another big problem we ran into while testing the Box during daily use is periodically we would receive a notification that "malware had been detected," without enough additional information. Nosotros would enter the app, and be greeted by the screen yous see below.
Aside from a few scant details about the website the infection was coming from (which itself is obfuscated by random letters that are useless to anyone at the consumer level), data almost what I was actually dealing with while the virus was alive was slim to none.
Worse however, when linked up to the network equally an intermediary between the modem and the router, the Box lost all of its private nuances to the big, heavy presence of the Netgear, with every infection being automatically classified nether a single label. Instead of seeing "this device was beingness infected with this malware from this plan/webpage" you only know that "something" had come through your router from "somewhere". Not exactly enough data to help u.s.a. avert the problem next time.
No information about which private device was compromised came in, and all I could glean from each intrusion was the proper name of an obscure website that never led anywhere in Google or otherwise. This meant that I had to take the Box at its word; it was supposedly keeping us safe, but any details almost how or from what were left to our imagination.
Private Line
Private Line is some other interesting feature of the Box'south mini-ecosystem, meant to protect your mobile devices even when you're abroad from the business firm and hooked upwards to some cell belfry halfway across the globe.
I'll give information technology to the Box on one front that Individual Line functions much as the local protection does at dwelling, and if you lot endeavour to visit a phishing link from your internal email or any divide apps, the Box notification will pop up and redirect you back to dry, rubber state.
But, I besides have to bring up the bespeak that iOS' Safari, and Android's Chrome both have this feature installed by default, and when testing against those ii metrics the Box never defenseless anything extra that our browsers didn't already detect themselves. Both on desktops and mobiles, Box never proved itself any more (or less) capable than the gratuitous options I already had pre-installed, still the Box itself is notwithstanding $199.
Wallet woes
At $199 upfront and $99 annually, BitDefender is demanding a rather large bounty for the job of standing baby-sit at your gates. Protecting a home network has never been pricier, and even though the Box was eventually able to deliver on its promise of stopping the majority of attacks in their tracks, it merely worked after many hours of trial-and-error.
At $199 upfront and $99 annually, BitDefender is request a large bounty for the job of standing baby-sit at your gates.
It's also non articulate why the Box is really needed. Non once during all of our tests did the Box testify itself to exist whatever more than capable than the dozens of gratis options already available, and when it came to protecting an Cyberspace of Things device (the prime reason Bitdefender charges actress), there was a number of executables available that could slip by the nearly current firmware update without a hitch.
In response to this problem, BitDefender has emphasized that I should call back of the Box as an add-on to our existing security suite. That seems to be truthful in the same way Pop-Tart commercials annunciate their pastries as a role of a counterbalanced breakfast. Technically it's true, only you lot'd practise but as well without.
Conclusion
I was hopeful for this technology, (every bit made evident past my praise several weeks ago), and information technology's disconcerting to run into it fall flat on its face before fifty-fifty making it off the starting line.
For now, the Box looks to be more of a proof of concept than a device that's ready for mass consumption. At that place are nevertheless far besides many holes in its setup process, implementation, and overall effectiveness to say information technology'south set up for marketplace. Because the company plans to offset shipping adjacent month, I would say it still has a long way to go before anyone is going to be enthusiastic most making this little white networking device a function of their home network.
The Box and products like it need to exist all or cipher correct from the start, because even just a few slips in the beginning might be all information technology takes to prevent a potential revolution from taking off in the first place.
While the idea seems sound, the execution still needs a chip of work. Hopefully follow-upward efforts from the likes of Itus Networks (Shield) or Nodal's Numa volition be able to learn from the mistakes of the Box, and put out a product that lives up to the grandiose promises that BitDefender made with this device.
Until and then, information technology seems users volition have to look a flake longer to protect smart fridges, IP cameras, and Net-connected toasters from the dastardly denizens of the spider web. While grandiose in purpose and mission, the Box misfires on too many disquisitional points to be considered as a serious contender to the status quo anytime soon.
Highs
- Gorgeous design, looks at habitation anywhere
- Provides moderate security for IoT devices
- Protects against phishing and email attacks
Lows
- Didn't protect against packaged malware
- Setup was far from "plug and play"
- Costly for what it does
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Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gadget-reviews/bitdefender-box-review/
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