Broadband ISP TalkTalk Preps New UK Smart Home Protection

Budget conscious internet provider TalkTalk appears to be nearing completion of a new ‘Smart Home Protection‘ service (app), which is currently being trialled by a number of their broadband customers and looks to be an upgrade of their existing ‘Supersafe Boost’ (usually costs an extra £4 per month) and HomeSafe service.

At present the paid Superfast Boost service, which is powered by internet security firm F-Secure, combines online protection against viruses, ransomware, phishing scams and malicious websites – for up to 10 devices on your local network – with a password manager. This can work across desktop computers, tablets and Smartphones etc.

On top of that TalkTalk also gives customers the ability to enable HomeSafe, which features three web filter settings – ‘Virus Alert’, ‘Kids Safe’ and ‘Homework’ time that can block social networking and games sites at specific times, as well as the ability to block individual sites.

However, the provider has recently been busy developing a new Smart Home Protection (SHP) service, which by the looks of it appears to combine elements from both Superfast and HomeSafe into a single solution. Apparently this is the “combination of a security feature embedded on our [Wi-Fi Hub] router, an advanced security app [for Android and iOS] and industry-leading cloud protection.”

The blurb from the trial offers some additional context: “SHP easily secures every connected thing in your home using one device, now and in the future. Per device control and protection … allowing you to individually apply parental controls and content filtering on all connected devices. SHP protects everything connected in your home, from desktop computers and phones to smart TVs and baby monitors. Its IoT security technology senses traffic from connected devices to provide extra protection against IoT threats.”

At the time of writing TalkTalk’s closed trial app for Android has already been installed over 1,000 times, although some of those will be from people who didn’t realise they needed to be invited to the beta before you can actually make use of the new app (partly because the service may require a beta firmware update to the Wi-Fi Hub router).

The ISP has confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that they are indeed testing the new service, but they added that “there is no confirmed date for launch yet.” We’ll keep an eye out for it.