Ted Bremekamp, who holds a career of more than 30 years in the tech industry, has seen it all, including a hacker compromising a high-net worth individual by remotely accessing his pool control system.

After a custom integrator was through setting up home automation systems, a pool control system was installed. The system gave the homeowners remote access to pool control and data on chemical levels and temperature. However, it sat on the home’s main network, giving the hacker access to the homeowner’s “digital assets,” Bremekamp says.

That’s why Bremekamp, who previously founded Parasol, a remote support subscription service for custom home integrators, is now vice president of channel at SpecOp Secure, a new company debuting at CEDIA Expo that offers cybersecurity services, networking as a service, and IT services. These services can be purchased by the integrators and packaged and resold to homeowners.

“We’re creating services for integrators to resell to their clients, foremost is cybersecurity, because I know it’s something in this industry that is lacking,” Bremekamp says.

How SpecOp Secure wants to help integrators with cybersecurity, networking and IT

The company’s residential cybersecurity offerings include firewalls, intrusion detection, content filtering, secure remote access, 24/7 monitoring and support, and educating homeowners on best practices.

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On the commercial side, SpecOp Secure offers a thorough network security assessment, customized solutions, endpoint protection and incident response and recovery.

In addition to cybersecurity services, another key part of SpecOp Secure’s offerings are its Networking as a Service program which has the company partnering with dealers to sell network service plans that include the equipment and support services such as firmware updates and monitoring to ensure optimal optime and security.

“We feel it’s more critical for the client and the end user to have a network that is constantly being monitored and supported,” Bremekamp says.  

In addition to securing its clients, SpecOp markets itself to integrators as a vendor that can help them achieve something that has long been an elusive industry desire: recurring monthly revenue. According to Bremekamp, the company will only suggest retail prices and won’t publish any pricing information.

“It’s as profitable as integrators want,” Bremekamp notes. “Integrators have the ability to mark it up and sell it for whatever they want.”

In addition, SpecOp Secure offers an internal IT services for integrators to help them stay operational and secure and prevent anything bad from happening to homeowners if an integrator’s IT systems were compromised.

“One of the things we’re offering is IT services for integrators so they’re not trying to struggle with having their technicians do both,” Bremekamp says, citing a common pain point among the typically small, resource-strained custom integration community.

The Smart Home Cybersecurity Issues SpecOp Wants to Address

According to CE Pro’s coverage, industry reports and research, Bremekamp is completely right. Despite cybersecurity being a topic of panels at CEDIA, CES, InfoComm and other AV trade shows, it’s not being addressed adequately.

A recent report from cybersecurity firm Bitdefender, co-produced by networking manufacturer NETGEAR, found that the smart home and consumer IoT space is fraught with dangerous cybersecurity vulnerabilities. There are 21 connected devices per household globally, and home network devices see an average of 10 attacks every day, the companies claim.

Common devices found in custom home projects like smart TVs, streaming devices, IP cameras, routers, gaming consoles, smart plugs, DVRs, set-top boxes and others have alarming counts of published vulnerabilities.

These same issues have forced the Federal Communications Commission to advance the Cyber Trust Mark, a voluntary labeling program similar to the Energy Star Label that certifies an IoT devices meets baseline cybersecurity standards defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

However, these issues have largely been brushed aside by the industry, Bremekamp says. He attributes this to a variety of reasons, including workload.

“They’re more interested in trying to find more technicians and salespeople to keep up with their workload and grow their business than trying to find a new service and take the time to learn it,” Bremekamp says.

Private industry is still the main target of hackers, with nation states and ransomware actors routinely finding ways into a company’s network to steal data and force an organization to pay large sums of money.

However, with the growth of the IoT and home networks growing as large as some small businesses, hackers may be pivoting to an easier but still lucrative target: the homes of business executives, politicians, celebrities and other important figures.

Integrators do acknowledge that it would generally be a good idea to offer smart home cybersecurity services, but they just don’t have the personnel. This is especially true as the industry continues its growth and remains hyper focused on new trends, like lighting. Bremekamp hopes SpecOp Secure can help change the industry’s focus.

“Lighting is so big, and everyone is focused on it because that’s the new thing in the industry now,” Bremekamp says. “I’m hoping cybersecurity takes a bigger role in the industry than it has in the past, because it’s just a ticking time bomb.”

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