Cybercrime is a growing, highly profitable business.
Global damages from cybercrime in 2021 are expected to hit $6 trillion, rising to $10.5 trillion by 2025.
The pandemic has triggered an even faster surge, as cybercriminals took advantage of vulnerabilities created by people working from home.
And while most people are now aware of the prevalence of cybercrime, those who fall victim often don’t know it’s happened. On average, it takes half a year to detect a data breach, and in that amount of time a lot of damage can be done.
The best way to protect yourself? A strong cybersecurity system.
To help our residential and small business customers, we’ve added Viasat Shield, a free cybersecurity service, to our growing suite of residential internet products. An even more robust premium service is available for an additional fee.
Viasat Shield provides an easy way to help consumers reduce online risks like malware, phishing attempts, and other cyberattacks that can negatively affect their home networks and devices.
No equipment is required — just download the app to add alerts and controls offering automatic, active protection of your home network.
Why it’s needed
Viasat Shield brings the company’s cybersecurity expertise to the consumer, filling a gap in the cybersecurity market.
“If you look at many of the products out there today in the retail market for protecting yourself against online risks, you must either buy software to install on each device or install a piece of hardware in your home,” said Viasat’s Nick Saunders, who’s worked on Shield since its beginning. “Both of these solutions require quite a level of effort for the consumer.”
The Shield service is a great deal simpler.
“The great thing about Shield is that it’s protecting you at the network level,” Saunders said. “So there’s no additional software or hardware needed.”
Viasat Shield helps to block malicious traffic from entering a customer’s home network and helps to protect them from accessing malicious sites. The service comes with a mobile app that displays information on the subscriber’s home network and notifications when anomalies happen.
Home network control
The Viasat Shield app also gives customers control of their home network, providing insight into what devices are online and how much data each is consuming. A customer can also use the app to pause their Wi-Fi and block devices from using the home network. That’s ideal for parents who may want to suspend internet access during dinner or homework time, or stop usage on a child’s device if it’s consuming a disproportionate amount of data. With that capability, a parent could also turn off data to their children’s cellphones, but maintain data flow to the television, letting the family watch a Netflix movie together.
Viasat customer surveys showed people were ready for a service like Viasat Shield. Respondents said they’re also interested in learning how to reduce their risk, but uncertain how to do so.
“There’s a lot of news these days about the vulnerabilities of connected devices,” Saunders said. “Consumers have an awareness, but they often are not presented with reasonable solutions to protect themselves from these problems.”