Whether they’re using wired or wireless networks, users need to go beyond client-based antivirus solutions to ensure their devices and data are secure. They need to adopt solutions that also address security at the network level.

That’s the word from Brendan Ziolo, vice president of marketing at Kindsight (News - Alert), which partners with network service providers to outfit consumers with secure solutions.

Part of the problem with popular client-based antivirus protection, says Ziolo, is that people frequently forget to keep it up to date, they may turn it off to get a better experience, and hackers have found ways to turn it off. What’s needed – and what enterprises usually do – is look for intrusion detection in the network, launching alerts when they find questionable behavior, he says.

Kindsight takes that concept and makes it available to consumers.

Kindsight, a spinoff of network infrastructure expert Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) – which is still the majority owner – puts its equipment in its service provider partners’ networks, so the end user doesn’t need to install anything, he says. (Although, the company does offer a mobile app that scans for malicious apps on users’ wireless devices and can help them remove problematic apps.)

SaskTel of Canada earlier this year launched a security service based on Kindsight technology. There are also U.S.-based service providers leveraging Kindsight’s solution, says Ziolo, who declined to provide the names of those carriers.

Securing consumer data and devices is more important now than ever, he says, given that high-level security threats doubled in the second quarter. Zioli says 14 percent of the home networks Kindsight saw during that time were infected, while 9 percent of home networks were in high alert – meaning likely candidates for identity theft, botnets and cybercrime.

To ensure Kindsight remains up to date with the most current security threats, Ziolo says the company has a research team looking for threats and making sure the company has the signatures to address those threats. 

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