As the Internet of Things (IoT) becoming more and more of a norm, securing devices is also becoming a primary concern not only for users but also for manufacturers. Security company Exein said it has developed “an open-source mathematical model that can detect threats autonomously at speeds significantly faster than any existing solution.”

Exein said the firm created a few lines of code embedded in the firmware, which will offer multi-layer, “virtually impenetrable” protection for the IoT devices.

“It’s not just about thwarting ransom threats,” said Gianni Cuozzo, CEO, Exein. “The exploitation of firmware can affect our safety too. Aviation, automobiles, and home safety systems can all be targeted. Exein Core, applied to the firmware of any and all IoT equipment at the manufacturing stage or retrofitted to existing devices, can stop such attacks. This is a world-changing product that represents an entirely new way of approaching IT security.”

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Platform agnostic, the Exein Core is a developer tool operating as an embedded component from within the hardware. Once grafted into firmware, Exein Core uses convolutional neural networking to learn the legitimate behaviors of a device. Armed with that knowledge, it can then detect anomalies and external threats at unprecedented speeds without the need for cloud computing support.

The potential for this world-changing product is enormous. According to McKinsey, “the worldwide number of IoT-connected devices is projected to increase to 43 billion by 2023”. Others predict higher numbers: 100 per person, or one trillion by 2025. Firmware is the Achilles Heel — a security soft spot that is typically awarded just 1% of protection budgets and continues to offer easy ingress for criminals.