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AI mental health tools may support journaling, reflection and routine guidance, but current evidence does not support using them as replacements for licensed therapists. HR and IT leaders need product-specific evidence, strict data controls and reliable human escalation before deployment.

The post Can AI Replace Therapists? What HR and IT Leaders Need to Know appeared first on TechRepublic.

Fighting between the U.S. and Iran appears to have paused after two days of clashing amid a shaky ceasefire. And, a look at what life is like inside Israel's expanding zone of control in Gaza.

(Image credit: Majid Saeedi)

From clunky spreadsheets to modern project tools, I've tried it all. Here's the Gantt chart software worth switching to.

The post Best Gantt Chart Software in 2026: 8 Tools I Trust the Most appeared first on TechRepublic.

OpenAI has doubled its top bio bounty to $50,000 for researchers who can develop a universal jailbreak against its biological safety challenge. The ongoing private program begins with GPT-5.6 and keeps GPT-5.5 in scope through July 27, 2026.

The post OpenAI Raises Bio Bounty to $50,000 for Universal Jailbreaks appeared first on TechRepublic.

A newly announced ban on smartphones for government workers, police and military personnel is spilling over into healthcare and educational facilities. Ordinary citizens worry they'll be next.

(Image credit: Wakil Kohsar/AFP)

• McAfee flags “Silent Swap,” a malicious Chromium extension disguised as Google Notes that secretly hijacks crypto transactions
• It works as a clipboard jacker, swapping copied wallet addresses with attacker‑controlled ones so victims unknowingly send funds to criminals
• Researchers advise always cross‑checking full wallet strings before sending, as attackers can craft lookalike addresses differing only in a few characters

Researchers have found yet another extension for Chromium-based browsers that is designed solely to steal people’s hard-earned cryptocurrency.

A report from McAfee has sounded the alarm on Silent Swap, a piece of malware hiding inside a benign-looking Google Notes extension.

Victims who stumble upon and download it (most likely through phishing, social engineering, or shady forums and websites), will get an extension that, on the surface, works as intended. It shows a small window where the victim can type a note and save it. They can color-code the notes and search through saved ones. However, this was only made to hide the program’s true intentions, which are to steal cryptocurrency.

Hijacking the clipboard

Silent Swap works like a typical clipboard jacker. It monitors the clipboard for strings that look like a crypto wallet - seemingly random strings of 26 to 42 alphanumeric characters.

When it spots one, it replaces it with a different one belonging to the attacker, so when the victim pastes the address into the wallet to send the funds, they are actually sending them to the address belonging to the attackers.

This works because crypto wallets are almost impossible to memorize, and too risky to type in from a piece of paper or a different document, forcing users to rely on copying and pasting.

Once the victim sends the funds, they are almost certainly irretrievably gone. Only if the funds are being sent from a centralized exchange (like Coinbase, for example), and if the victim spots the attack fast enough, can they ask the exchange’s support to freeze the transaction. In all other cases, once the money is sent, it’s gone.

The best way to defend against these attacks is to cross-reference the strings before hitting send. Some people would only check the first and last few characters, but security researchers don’t recommend it, because some clipboard jackers can generate addresses that only differ in a few characters.

Garmin Forerunner 170: One minute review

The Garmin Forerunner 170 and 170 Music sit nicely between the cheaper Garmin Forerunner 70 and more expensive 570 and 970 duo, the latter of which features on our best Garmin watches guide. As such, both Music and non-Music versions are a bit of a halfway house; not quite cheap enough to be picked up on a whim by budget-conscious consumers, nor expensive enough to be stuffed with top-quality premium features.

However, it is stuffed with plenty of robust fitness features that will suit any active exerciser, especially runners. Sebastian Sawe, who who broke the world record by running a marathon under two hours in London, was toting a Garmin Forerunner 55 — Garmin’s cheapest, most stripped-back running watch.

What you’re paying for here is the Garmin Forerunner 70 — an excellent smartwatch on the cheaper end, and the successor to the popular Garmin Forerunner 55 — with additional smartwatch features attached. These include Garmin Pay, a virtual wallet which lets you pay with cards held on-watch, and the Smart Notifications feature, which allows you to view and manage alerts from a paired smartphone. The Forerunner 170 Music adds an extra 4GB of music storage.

If you’re largely uninterested in these features and you just want an excellent training tool, I’d get the Garmin Forerunner 70 instead, as it’s the best value of the three newcomers overall. But the Garmin Forerunner 170 Music does allow you to hit that Saturday morning parkrun, pay for your coffee, and jog home with headphones in — all without using your phone at all. It’s incredibly convenient, but not a package everyone will need or want.

Still, during my testing I found the watch good to use, comfortable to sleep in, and accurate against testing units like my Polar H10 heart rate monitor. Our writer Michael Sawh found the same with the Garmin Forerunner 70. You can read my full thoughts on the 170 Music below, but whichever watch you choose, you’ll be in good hands.

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Specifications

Garmin Forerunner 70

Garmin Forerunner 170

Garmin Forerunner 170 Music

Price

$249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399

$299 / £259.99 / AU$479

$349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549

Dimensions

42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm

42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm

42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm

Weight

40g

41g

41g

Case/bezel

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Display

AMOLED 390 x 390px

AMOLED 390 x 390px

AMOLED 390 x 390px

GPS

GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS, SatIQ

L1 GPS, GNSS, Galileo, and BeiDou

GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo

Battery life

Up to 13 days, all-systems GNSS mode: Up to 16 hours

Up to 10 days, all-systems GNSS mode: Up to 14 hours

Up to 10 days, all-systems GNSS mode: Up to 14 hours (6.5 with music)

Connection

Bluetooth, ANT+

Bluetooth, ANT+

Bluetooth, ANT+

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Price and availability

• Garmin Forerunner 170: $299 / £259.99 / AU$479
• Garmin Forerunner 170 Music: $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549
• Garmin Forerunner 70: $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399

The Garmin Forerunner 170 without music storage costs $299 / £259.99 / AU$479.

The Garmin Forerunner 170 Music, the upgrade with 4GB internal memory for music storage, costs $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549. The Forerunner 70, which doesn’t have the 170’s smartwatch features such as Garmin Pay and Smart Notifications, is cheaper at $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399.

We’re zeroing in on the Garmin Forerunner 170 today, and I think the watch is generally good value for money compared to some of the seriously expensive premium Garmins in the lineup, but perhaps not compared to the 70, which is $100 / £80 / AU$150 cheaper for a very similar watch. If you don’t want Garmin Pay or notifications, you’re better off saving your cash and getting the 70.

None of the Garmins have a particularly wide feature set compared to watches from Apple and Samsung at a similar price point, but their batteries last far longer — up to 10 days for the 170 — and their workout credentials are fantastic. This ensures you can get multiple battery-sucking GPS workouts in each week while still retaining enough smartwatch functionality to matter, all without needing a charge for ages. Each Garmin watch is durable too.

I’d say it’s generally a good value prospect, even if it does edge into the expensive end with the 170 Music.

• Score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Iterates on existing Forerunner design
• Surprisingly dull AMOLED screen
• Elevate V4 heart rate sensor

The Garmin Forerunner 170 looks very much like every other Forerunner, but if this is your first Garmin that won’t mean much. It’s got a five-button configuration — up, down, light, start, stop or select, and back (or lap). You can use these, a touchscreen, or a combination of the two to navigate the watch, which is ideal if you’re wearing gloves.

It comes in a single size, with a 42.6mm screen, and its packing an AMOLED display rather than the duller digital-watch-style memory-in-pixel screen of older watches, but it’s not particularly bright even at full power. It comes with a silicon two-tone strap, and on the back it has one of Garmin’s older heart rate sensors, the Elevate V4. More expensive watches get the more accurate V5, but the V4 has been included here presumably to keep the cost down.

It’s very light, with a listed weight of 41g, and feels like less than that in the hand. A light watch is great for running and collecting wellness info as it’s easy to wear, and this checks the boxes.

Those familiar with Garmin products will be happy to know no liberties have been taken with the design of Garmin’s established software, either on-watch or in the Garmin Connect app. I think it’s the perfect mix of stripped-down and information-heavy, although there are a lot of menus to lose yourself in. The buttons make it fairly intuitive to navigate around for old hands. It’s a tried and tested design, that doesn’t break the mold in any significant way.

• Design score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

• Advanced running dynamics
• Limited smart notifications functionality
• 170 Music offers mp3 and streaming downloads

Plenty of running features abound here. As the name suggests, Garmin’s included its advanced running dynamics tools such as running power (a measure of your total running effort using motion data as well as heart rate), along with advanced statistics such as stride and cadence data after your run. During workouts, you can set up routes in Garmin Connect with virtual pacers to keep you on time.

You also get the usual health stuff, such as heart rate and sleep score, 80 workout modes (although not all have dedicated metrics or GPS enabled) and reports in the morning and evening that provide information about your training along with the weather and a motivational quote. The Garmin Forerunner 170 gets Smart Notifications, which allow you to answer some tests with simple replies and the Garmin Pay functionality which acts as a virtual wallet like Apple Pay.

The 170 Music’s 4GB of storage allows you to upload tunes directly onto the watch, including by saving playlists from the likes of Spotify. Even without the dedicated Music model, you can listen on apps like Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music and so on through your phone, and control music on the watch there. The Garmin Connect IQ store has dedicated widgets for these services, along with thousands of other apps from a mixture of big-name brands and enthusiastic amateurs.

Otherwise, what’s missing? I wasn’t expecting full-color maps at this price, just the breadcrumb navigation and route direction common on most Garmin watches without maps, so I don’t feel like the feature is missing, as such.

However, to justify the price increase from the 70 to the 170 Music, I think it needs more hardware features. A microphone like the Garmin Forerunner 570, and the ability to take calls on watch and use Garmin’s simple voice assistant, would better separate it. As is, most people who want dedicated smartwatch features will just get one of the best Apple Watches or best Samsung watches instead.

• Features score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Accurate against a heart rate monitor
• GPS works well against an Apple Watch Ultra 3
• Comfortable and easy to wear day-to-day

I checked the Garmin’s heart rate accuracy against an electrical chest-mounted Polar H10 heart rate monitor — the gold standard of heart rate accuracy — during a 25-minute treadmill test, and was very pleased to report that despite the older sensor, both average and maximum heart rate were within 1-4bpm of the heart rate monitor; a very acceptable margin for error and not a statistically significant one.

GPS was accurate compared to my Apple Watch Ultra 3, and battery life was representative of its claims, with total drain taking just over a week with multiple GPS workouts completed. I feel as though the ‘up to 10 days’ listed battery life is reflective of reality.

Being lighter and smaller than many Garmins I’ve tested, it’s comfortable to wear every day and fine to sleep in.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Scorecard

(Image credit: Future)

Category

Comment

Score

Value

It’s not barnstorming value compared to the 70, but unlikely to disappoint.

4/5

Design

Builds on the solid existing Forerunner design with little iteration.

4/5

Features

Rich training insights and smartwatch features.

4/5

Performance

Solid performance against industry standards and contemporaries.

4.5/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Should I buy?Buy it if...

You’re a runner

The Garmin Forerunner 170 series shines when your favorite pastime is running in any form.

You want smartwatch features

Garmin Pay and Notifications make it a useful tool outside of workouts.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget

The Garmin Forerunner 70 does almost everything you need, for less.

You’re looking for premium performance

Rugged metal bezels, the Elevate V5 heart rate sensor, and full-color maps are the province of pricier Garmins.

Also consider

Coros Pace 4

A worthy alternative training tool, the Coros Pace 4 is a fantastic watch.

Read our full review

Garmin Forerunner 70

A better value option if you don't want the 170/Music's smart features.

Read our full review

How I tested

I wore the Garmin Forerunner 170 Music for over a week, draining the battery down and using as many of its features as possible. I ran and used it for strength and yoga sessions, tested its smart features, and pitted it against multiple competitor devices, including a chest strap heart rate monitor.

Garmin Forerunner 170: One minute review

The Garmin Forerunner 170 and 170 Music sit nicely between the cheaper Garmin Forerunner 70 and more expensive 570 and 970 duo, the latter of which features on our best Garmin watches guide. As such, both Music and non-Music versions are a bit of a halfway house; not quite cheap enough to be picked up on a whim by budget-conscious consumers, nor expensive enough to be stuffed with top-quality premium features.

However, it is stuffed with plenty of robust fitness features that will suit any active exerciser, especially runners. Sebastian Sawe, who who broke the world record by running a marathon under two hours in London, was toting a Garmin Forerunner 55 — Garmin’s cheapest, most stripped-back running watch.

What you’re paying for here is the Garmin Forerunner 70 — an excellent smartwatch on the cheaper end, and the successor to the popular Garmin Forerunner 55 — with additional smartwatch features attached. These include Garmin Pay, a virtual wallet which lets you pay with cards held on-watch, and the Smart Notifications feature, which allows you to view and manage alerts from a paired smartphone. The Forerunner 170 Music adds an extra 4GB of music storage.

If you’re largely uninterested in these features and you just want an excellent training tool, I’d get the Garmin Forerunner 70 instead, as it’s the best value of the three newcomers overall. But the Garmin Forerunner 170 Music does allow you to hit that Saturday morning parkrun, pay for your coffee, and jog home with headphones in — all without using your phone at all. It’s incredibly convenient, but not a package everyone will need or want.

Still, during my testing I found the watch good to use, comfortable to sleep in, and accurate against testing units like my Polar H10 heart rate monitor. Our writer Michael Sawh found the same with the Garmin Forerunner 70. You can read my full thoughts on the 170 Music below, but whichever watch you choose, you’ll be in good hands.

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Specifications

Garmin Forerunner 70

Garmin Forerunner 170

Garmin Forerunner 170 Music

Price

$249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399

$299 / £259.99 / AU$479

$349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549

Dimensions

42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm

42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm

42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm

Weight

40g

41g

41g

Case/bezel

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Display

AMOLED 390 x 390px

AMOLED 390 x 390px

AMOLED 390 x 390px

GPS

GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS, SatIQ

L1 GPS, GNSS, Galileo, and BeiDou

GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo

Battery life

Up to 13 days, all-systems GNSS mode: Up to 16 hours

Up to 10 days, all-systems GNSS mode: Up to 14 hours

Up to 10 days, all-systems GNSS mode: Up to 14 hours (6.5 with music)

Connection

Bluetooth, ANT+

Bluetooth, ANT+

Bluetooth, ANT+

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Price and availability

• Garmin Forerunner 170: $299 / £259.99 / AU$479
• Garmin Forerunner 170 Music: $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549
• Garmin Forerunner 70: $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399

The Garmin Forerunner 170 without music storage costs $299 / £259.99 / AU$479.

The Garmin Forerunner 170 Music, the upgrade with 4GB internal memory for music storage, costs $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549. The Forerunner 70, which doesn’t have the 170’s smartwatch features such as Garmin Pay and Smart Notifications, is cheaper at $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399.

We’re zeroing in on the Garmin Forerunner 170 today, and I think the watch is generally good value for money compared to some of the seriously expensive premium Garmins in the lineup, but perhaps not compared to the 70, which is $100 / £80 / AU$150 cheaper for a very similar watch. If you don’t want Garmin Pay or notifications, you’re better off saving your cash and getting the 70.

None of the Garmins have a particularly wide feature set compared to watches from Apple and Samsung at a similar price point, but their batteries last far longer — up to 10 days for the 170 — and their workout credentials are fantastic. This ensures you can get multiple battery-sucking GPS workouts in each week while still retaining enough smartwatch functionality to matter, all without needing a charge for ages. Each Garmin watch is durable too.

I’d say it’s generally a good value prospect, even if it does edge into the expensive end with the 170 Music.

• Score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Iterates on existing Forerunner design
• Surprisingly dull AMOLED screen
• Elevate V4 heart rate sensor

The Garmin Forerunner 170 looks very much like every other Forerunner, but if this is your first Garmin that won’t mean much. It’s got a five-button configuration — up, down, light, start, stop or select, and back (or lap). You can use these, a touchscreen, or a combination of the two to navigate the watch, which is ideal if you’re wearing gloves.

It comes in a single size, with a 42.6mm screen, and its packing an AMOLED display rather than the duller digital-watch-style memory-in-pixel screen of older watches, but it’s not particularly bright even at full power. It comes with a silicon two-tone strap, and on the back it has one of Garmin’s older heart rate sensors, the Elevate V4. More expensive watches get the more accurate V5, but the V4 has been included here presumably to keep the cost down.

It’s very light, with a listed weight of 41g, and feels like less than that in the hand. A light watch is great for running and collecting wellness info as it’s easy to wear, and this checks the boxes.

Those familiar with Garmin products will be happy to know no liberties have been taken with the design of Garmin’s established software, either on-watch or in the Garmin Connect app. I think it’s the perfect mix of stripped-down and information-heavy, although there are a lot of menus to lose yourself in. The buttons make it fairly intuitive to navigate around for old hands. It’s a tried and tested design, that doesn’t break the mold in any significant way.

• Design score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

• Advanced running dynamics
• Limited smart notifications functionality
• 170 Music offers mp3 and streaming downloads

Plenty of running features abound here. As the name suggests, Garmin’s included its advanced running dynamics tools such as running power (a measure of your total running effort using motion data as well as heart rate), along with advanced statistics such as stride and cadence data after your run. During workouts, you can set up routes in Garmin Connect with virtual pacers to keep you on time.

You also get the usual health stuff, such as heart rate and sleep score, 80 workout modes (although not all have dedicated metrics or GPS enabled) and reports in the morning and evening that provide information about your training along with the weather and a motivational quote. The Garmin Forerunner 170 gets Smart Notifications, which allow you to answer some tests with simple replies and the Garmin Pay functionality which acts as a virtual wallet like Apple Pay.

The 170 Music’s 4GB of storage allows you to upload tunes directly onto the watch, including by saving playlists from the likes of Spotify. Even without the dedicated Music model, you can listen on apps like Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music and so on through your phone, and control music on the watch there. The Garmin Connect IQ store has dedicated widgets for these services, along with thousands of other apps from a mixture of big-name brands and enthusiastic amateurs.

Otherwise, what’s missing? I wasn’t expecting full-color maps at this price, just the breadcrumb navigation and route direction common on most Garmin watches without maps, so I don’t feel like the feature is missing, as such.

However, to justify the price increase from the 70 to the 170 Music, I think it needs more hardware features. A microphone like the Garmin Forerunner 570, and the ability to take calls on watch and use Garmin’s simple voice assistant, would better separate it. As is, most people who want dedicated smartwatch features will just get one of the best Apple Watches or best Samsung watches instead.

• Features score: 4/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Accurate against a heart rate monitor
• GPS works well against an Apple Watch Ultra 3
• Comfortable and easy to wear day-to-day

I checked the Garmin’s heart rate accuracy against an electrical chest-mounted Polar H10 heart rate monitor — the gold standard of heart rate accuracy — during a 25-minute treadmill test, and was very pleased to report that despite the older sensor, both average and maximum heart rate were within 1-4bpm of the heart rate monitor; a very acceptable margin for error and not a statistically significant one.

GPS was accurate compared to my Apple Watch Ultra 3, and battery life was representative of its claims, with total drain taking just over a week with multiple GPS workouts completed. I feel as though the ‘up to 10 days’ listed battery life is reflective of reality.

Being lighter and smaller than many Garmins I’ve tested, it’s comfortable to wear every day and fine to sleep in.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Scorecard

(Image credit: Future)

Category

Comment

Score

Value

It’s not barnstorming value compared to the 70, but unlikely to disappoint.

4/5

Design

Builds on the solid existing Forerunner design with little iteration.

4/5

Features

Rich training insights and smartwatch features.

4/5

Performance

Solid performance against industry standards and contemporaries.

4.5/5

Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Should I buy?Buy it if...

You’re a runner

The Garmin Forerunner 170 series shines when your favorite pastime is running in any form.

You want smartwatch features

Garmin Pay and Notifications make it a useful tool outside of workouts.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget

The Garmin Forerunner 70 does almost everything you need, for less.

You’re looking for premium performance

Rugged metal bezels, the Elevate V5 heart rate sensor, and full-color maps are the province of pricier Garmins.

Also consider

Coros Pace 4

A worthy alternative training tool, the Coros Pace 4 is a fantastic watch.

Read our full review

Garmin Forerunner 70

A better value option if you don't want the 170/Music's smart features.

Read our full review

How I tested

I wore the Garmin Forerunner 170 Music for over a week, draining the battery down and using as many of its features as possible. I ran and used it for strength and yoga sessions, tested its smart features, and pitted it against multiple competitor devices, including a chest strap heart rate monitor.

Philips Hue bulbs are a hugely popular smart lighting solution, and with good reason. But if your setup consists only of Hue bulbs (and a hub), you're missing a trick. The brand makes a range of accessories that can make a major difference to how you use your smart lights, and most are very affordable too. I asked the TechRadar team for some of their favorite cheap smart home upgrades, and almost all the answers I got back were Philips Hue accessories, so I decided it was worthy of its own article.

Entertainment Editor Matt Bolton is a big fan of his Philips Hue Smart Button, a compact, simple, wireless switch. "I stuck the Smart Button on my wall next to my regular light switch, giving me a way to control just the lamps in my living room separate to the other lights," he says. "It's so nice and easy, and no rewiring needed."

Matt also makes use of the Philips Hue Smart Plugs, which can be used to integrate non-smart lights into your Hue ecosystem. "I use the Hue Plugs to add little lamps that are too small for Hue bulbs into my lighting setups," he says. "I also use it for my Christmas tree lights every year, so I can plug them in somewhere awkward, but I can still turn them on and off at will."

Senior News Editor Mark Wilson is a big fan of his Philips Hue Tap Dial Switch. This physical switch has four buttons and a dial, and can control nine different actions; it's a more complex alternative to the Smart Button. "I hate using my phone or voice controls for smart lights. My favorite feature is turning the dial to dim my Hue lights — it's so much better than tapping the buttons on other switches," says Mark. "It’s simple to use, while also being really versatile thanks to those four buttons, which can set scenes in different rooms."

Homes Editor Cat Ellis has a slightly different suggestion: if you're finding regular Hue bulbs too expensive, she recommends checking out the much cheaper Essential range. "I put a regular Philips Hue bulb and a Hue Essential bulb side-by-side in identical lamps, and it was almost impossible to tell the difference when shifting colors — I could only really notice a distinction when dialing down the brightness."

A smarter setup Philips Hue Tap Dial Switch

Read our full review

Pros

• Highly configurable
• Easy to set up
• Wireless with magnetic mount

Cons

• Only two color options
• Can be overkill for simpler Hue systems

Philips Hue Essential Smart Bulb

Read our full review

Philips Hue Smart Plug

Read our full review

Pros

• Compact, unassuming design
• Simple to use
• Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and HomeKit

Cons

• Requires Hue Bridge for control when you're not close by
• No energy monitoring functions

Philips Hue Dimmer Switch

Read our full review

Pros

• Simple setup
• Can be mounted on a wall or used as a portable remote
• Customizable buttons
• Time-based control options

Cons

• Not as flexible as the Philips Hue Tap Dial Switch
• Only available in white

Philips Hue Smart Button

Read our full review

Pros

• Compact design
• Easy to set up and use
• Two wall-mounting options

Cons

• Limited functionality
• More expensive than the Hue Smart Wireless Dimmer

Philips Hue Smart Motion Sensor

Read our full review

While there are a few other brands, the hard drive market is essentially a three-horse race between WD, Seagate and Toshiba.

Having looked at WD and Seagate NAS HDDs recently, it seemed appropriate to look at what Toshiba offers that’s different to the other two.

Toshiba Electronics Europe launched the N300 NAS drive series in January 2017. By that point, Western Digital and Seagate had been in the dedicated NAS drive market for years. WD Red has been on sale since 2012, and Seagate IronWolf launched in 2016. Toshiba was late to this party, and that certainly coloured its product range from the outset.

The N300 launched at 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB, all carrying a 128MB data buffer and a 7200 RPM spindle. That last detail is the key one. Toshiba did not try to match WD and Seagate on their terms; instead, it went faster.

The N300 range runs at 7200 RPM on every capacity variant, from the smallest to the largest. That decision produces a drive with meaningfully higher sequential throughput. The N300 achieves up to 298 MB/s sustained transfer speed. The WD Red Plus manages around 180-190 MB/s. The IronWolf reaches 202 MB/s. The N300 leaves both behind in raw sequential performance.

And, this newer HDWG740EZSTC model covered here offers 512MB of cache, where older revisions had 128MB or 256MB.

However, there are tradeoffs here. On the hardware side, the additional rotational speed makes the N300 noisier, it generates more heat, and uses more power. That makes it less suitable for a NAS that’s sitting on the desktop, and more acceptable if you have a server room. And, the other awkward aspect of the N300 is that Toshiba has jacked the price up of this drive to around 50% more than what WD and Seagate are asking for the same capacity from some sources.

There are a few deals to be had on the N300, but it does make you wonder whether it's competing with the WD Red Plus and Seagate IronWolf, or the Red Pro and IronWolf Pro?

If only Toshiba would price the N300 more appropriately, it might become one of the best NAS drive options.

Toshiba N300 4TB: Price

Without doubt, the worst possible place to buy the N300 4TB drive is from Amazon.com and the Toshiba Store on that retailer.

The current asking price there is around $330, which is utterly outrageous. To put that into perspective, in January 2026, the price was $215.62, and in August 2025, it was $154.99. Therefore, it has seen a 212% price increase in just nine months. Given that I wouldn’t believe there is much interest in 4TB drives for Datacentres, this is purely corporate greed in action.

But what’s even more curious is that even in the US, you can get this drive for cheaper, since B&H Photo sells it for $244.99, and Newegg wants $299.

Outside of the US borders, the prices are still elevated but not as excessively. From Amazon.co.uk, the 4TB capacity is priced around the £200 mark, and across Europe on Amazon, it's €237.86, if they have stock.

For comparison, American customers on Amazon.com can pay $194.99 for the 4TB WD Plus drive, and the 4TB Seagate IronWolf is only $189.

In short, wherever you buy the N300, it's seen a much larger price increase than its competitors, and this is true across all regions.

One important difference to note is that the N300 is available in a much larger range of sizes than Red Plus and IronWolf. The smallest N300 is 4TB, and it is available in 6TB, 8TB, 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, 16TB, 17TB, 20TB and 22TB.

The Red Plus only goes from 1TB up to 12TB, and the IronWolf goes from 1TB to 16TB, with some truly odd sizes such as 7TB in between the usual capacity increases.

However, you look at the N300 pricing, this is an expensive drive that tries to go between the Red Plus/IronWolf and the Red Pro/IronWolf Pro product ranges.

What makes this more complicated is that while officially IronWolf Pro drives are made in 4TB capacities, I could only find 12TB and larger. But the 4TB WD Red Pro can be found for $249.99 on Amazon, which is cheaper than the N300 for the same capacity.  

What’s genuinely confusing about the N300 range is that if you go looking for drives of a particular capacity, you might find that drive with three different part numbers, one being the retail number, others being OEM, and I managed with some sizes to find ones with 128MB, 512MB and 1024MB caches. Obviously, the larger caches are better, especially on bigger capacity drives.

As an example of how messed up Toshiba is on Amazon.com, clicking “Visit the Toshiba Store” sometimes takes you to Toshiba kitchen products.

These prices need to be more consistent and gouge less.

(Image credit: Toshiba)Toshiba N300 4TB: Design

Since its launch, Toshiba has developed several proprietary technologies for the N300 and has kept them consistent across the product line.

These include Stable Platter Technology, which uses a tied spindle motor to secure the drive shaft at both ends. This reduces system-induced vibration and is directly comparable with WD's 3D Active Balance Plus approach. Both address the same problem, where in a multi-drive enclosure, vibration from one drive affects the others.

Also special to the N300 is Dynamic Cache Technology, a self-contained algorithm with on-board buffer management that optimises cache allocation between read and write operations in real time. From the outset, the N300 has typically had more cache than its competition, so managing the use of that is important for performance.

One of the hidden issues with faster-rotating drives is wear, and on the N300, this is addressed in a few interesting ways, one being Ramp Load Technology. This parks the read and write heads on a ramp outside the platter surface when the drive is idle. It reduces head wear during power cycles and protects the media surface.

Error recovery control has also been present since the original launch, limiting recovery time to avoid RAID array ejections in the same way that WD's TLER does.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

All these features I’ve mentioned arrived with the first N300 drives, but since then, the N300 has undergone some subtle changes, one of which is the introduction of NASLink Technology.

This fine-tunes drive behaviour for rapid data access and includes firmware-level optimisation for RAID performance through improved disk coordination. The more drives you have in an array, the more important it is that they’re all moving to a common beat, and Toshiba has baked that into the N300 via firmware updates.

Having larger arrays improves performance, but it introduces vibrations that can migrate from one drive to those either side of it. To combat this, the N300 also carries three built-in rotational vibration sensors. These detect and compensate for the knock-on vibration effects that become a serious problem once a NAS enclosure has more than four drives installed.

Overall, while Toshiba hasn’t come up with anything like Seagate IronWolf Health Management. In other respects, this is probably the most sophisticated drive serving the home and small-business NAS market.

However, when Toshiba only offers a three-year warranty and 180TB/year workload, it doesn't seem much like it's that special.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Toshiba N300 4TB: Performance

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Since Toshiba only provided two of these drives, there seemed little point in trying to work out what array advantages running the N300 offered. Therefore, I went with the same PC analysis that I used on the WD Red Plus and IronWolf drives

Here are my results:

Drives

 

Toshiba N300

WD Red Plus

IronWolf

Part No.

 

HDWG740

WD40EFPX

ST4000VN006

Capacity

 

4TB

4TB

4TB

Cache

 

512MB

256MB

256MB

Rotational Speed

RPM

7200

5400

5400

AJA

 

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

282

187

190

Write

MB/s

283

179

185

ATTO

 

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

291.57

206.24

192.35

Write

MB/s

294.25

197.35

191.76

CrystalDiskMark Default

 

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

299.18

201.23

200.77

Write

MB/s

300.50

208.26

199.33

CrystalDiskMark RealWorld

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

286.95

212.46

200.22

Write

MB/s

290.01

204.42

199.11

PCMark

 

 

 

 

Score

 

651

801

677

Bandwidth

MB/s

99.87

124.49

103.69

MS Winsat

 

 

 

 

Random 16 Read

MB/s

2.37

1.71

1.6

Sequential 64.0 Read

MB/s

218.38

168.53

158.16

Sequential 64.0 Write

MB/s

289.31

204.65

190.5

Read Time with Sequential Writes

ms

4.810

1.385

1.946

Latency:  95th Percentile

ms

31.620

12.685

34.685

Latency: Maximum

ms

75.357

64.723

62.341

Average Read Time with Random Writes

ms

12.021

5.267

9.898

Aside from PCMark10, all other tests show that the N300 is a country mile faster than either of the alternative NAS drives with the same capacity. I can put those results down to the increased rotational speed and also the 512MB cache on the N300.

One extra test I did perform on a NAS was to take a single drive on a Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS, connect to it over a 2.5GbE LAN link, and bench test it from my PC.

I achieved read and write speeds over 285MB/s, which is the practical limit of 2.5GbE LAN ports. That with a single N300 drive, you can saturate a 2.5GbE Link is impressive, and it implies that with four drives in a RAID 5 configuration, you should be able to saturate a 10GbE LAN port. To do that on both WD and Seagate would involve moving up to their Red Pro or IronWolf Pro range.

Based on these numbers alone, the N300 might be worth what Toshiba is asking for it, depending on how your NAS is configured and if raw speed is important to that system.

However, I should also point out that the power consumption on the N300 is dramatically more than on the Seagate and WD drives. The current 4TB N300 draws 7.43W typical under active operating load, where the Red Plus only consumes 4.7W and the IronWolf 4.8W.

And, the N300 will be converting most of that power into heat, regrettably. If you already have a machine room where the cooling isn't coping, then maybe using these drives might not be the best plan. 

Toshiba N300 4TB: Final verdict

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

If this drive were cheaper and Toshiba had technology like the IronWolf Health Management scheme, there would be little debate about this being one of the best options.

However, there are a few things about NAS and RAID arrays that make this choice slightly more complicated.

For starters, the majority of NAS are bottlenecked by their LAN connections, so if you only have a NAS with a 1GbE or 2.5GbE LAN port, then you won’t see the improved performance of the N300 over the WD Red Plus or IronWolf. If you do have a 10GbE LAN port, it will be saturated with four drives; extra drives won’t make any difference unless you have multiple LAN ports and bandwidth aggregation.

What you do get with the N300 is internal NAS performance, which, if you are running AI on your NAS, might be a factor. However, most people using their NAS that way use NVMe drives for caching, allowing them to get higher performance from 5400RPM drives.  Rebuilds will be quicker, but the value of that comes down to whether the NAS is a point-of-service or other mission-critical function, and it assumes that a drive (or drives) dies in the first place to trigger the rebuild.

The fly in this ointment is the price, because for a four bay NAS, that’s a jump from roughly $800 in storage to $1200, and for that increase, you might consider Pro-level media.

Interestingly, currently the WD Red Pro 4TB is $250, offers 7200RPM spindle speeds, for less than the 4TB N300 on Amazon.com. And deals on IronWolf Pro models undercut Toshiba's pricing at that retailer.

In the UK, the IronWolf Pro 4TB is only £169.99, the WD Red Pro is £234.75, making the £195.15 N300 4TB a better deal than the WD, but much worse than the Seagate drive.

That’s the biggest issue here, because Toshiba aimed this product to hit the open ground between the entry-level NAS drives and the Pro series mechanisms, and now adjusted the price to compete with the premium layer. These Pro drives have 300TB/yr workload ratings and a 5-year warranty, whereas the N300 only has 180TB/yr and a 3-year warranty.

Based on these Toshiba defined ratings, it can't compete on reliability.

While I expect that if I tested the N300 against the Pro hardware, it would do well, since both of the competing brands typically only include 256MB of cache, not 512MB. But those who buy those mechanisms are looking for longevity above all else.

Overall, I liked the N300, as it takes less time to get operational on a NAS and in small arrays, the performance is excellent. But I can’t get on board with Toshiba’s pricing, which seems excessively high in some regions and lacks any consistency.

For more storage solutions, we've reviewed the best NAS devices.

While there are a few other brands, the hard drive market is essentially a three-horse race between WD, Seagate and Toshiba.

Having looked at WD and Seagate NAS HDDs recently, it seemed appropriate to look at what Toshiba offers that’s different to the other two.

Toshiba Electronics Europe launched the N300 NAS drive series in January 2017. By that point, Western Digital and Seagate had been in the dedicated NAS drive market for years. WD Red has been on sale since 2012, and Seagate IronWolf launched in 2016. Toshiba was late to this party, and that certainly coloured its product range from the outset.

The N300 launched at 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB, all carrying a 128MB data buffer and a 7200 RPM spindle. That last detail is the key one. Toshiba did not try to match WD and Seagate on their terms; instead, it went faster.

The N300 range runs at 7200 RPM on every capacity variant, from the smallest to the largest. That decision produces a drive with meaningfully higher sequential throughput. The N300 achieves up to 298 MB/s sustained transfer speed. The WD Red Plus manages around 180-190 MB/s. The IronWolf reaches 202 MB/s. The N300 leaves both behind in raw sequential performance.

And, this newer HDWG740EZSTC model covered here offers 512MB of cache, where older revisions had 128MB or 256MB.

However, there are tradeoffs here. On the hardware side, the additional rotational speed makes the N300 noisier, it generates more heat, and uses more power. That makes it less suitable for a NAS that’s sitting on the desktop, and more acceptable if you have a server room. And, the other awkward aspect of the N300 is that Toshiba has jacked the price up of this drive to around 50% more than what WD and Seagate are asking for the same capacity from some sources.

There are a few deals to be had on the N300, but it does make you wonder whether it's competing with the WD Red Plus and Seagate IronWolf, or the Red Pro and IronWolf Pro?

If only Toshiba would price the N300 more appropriately, it might become one of the best NAS drive options.

Toshiba N300 4TB: Price

Without doubt, the worst possible place to buy the N300 4TB drive is from Amazon.com and the Toshiba Store on that retailer.

The current asking price there is around $330, which is utterly outrageous. To put that into perspective, in January 2026, the price was $215.62, and in August 2025, it was $154.99. Therefore, it has seen a 212% price increase in just nine months. Given that I wouldn’t believe there is much interest in 4TB drives for Datacentres, this is purely corporate greed in action.

But what’s even more curious is that even in the US, you can get this drive for cheaper, since B&H Photo sells it for $244.99, and Newegg wants $299.

Outside of the US borders, the prices are still elevated but not as excessively. From Amazon.co.uk, the 4TB capacity is priced around the £200 mark, and across Europe on Amazon, it's €237.86, if they have stock.

For comparison, American customers on Amazon.com can pay $194.99 for the 4TB WD Plus drive, and the 4TB Seagate IronWolf is only $189.

In short, wherever you buy the N300, it's seen a much larger price increase than its competitors, and this is true across all regions.

One important difference to note is that the N300 is available in a much larger range of sizes than Red Plus and IronWolf. The smallest N300 is 4TB, and it is available in 6TB, 8TB, 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, 16TB, 17TB, 20TB and 22TB.

The Red Plus only goes from 1TB up to 12TB, and the IronWolf goes from 1TB to 16TB, with some truly odd sizes such as 7TB in between the usual capacity increases.

However, you look at the N300 pricing, this is an expensive drive that tries to go between the Red Plus/IronWolf and the Red Pro/IronWolf Pro product ranges.

What makes this more complicated is that while officially IronWolf Pro drives are made in 4TB capacities, I could only find 12TB and larger. But the 4TB WD Red Pro can be found for $249.99 on Amazon, which is cheaper than the N300 for the same capacity.  

What’s genuinely confusing about the N300 range is that if you go looking for drives of a particular capacity, you might find that drive with three different part numbers, one being the retail number, others being OEM, and I managed with some sizes to find ones with 128MB, 512MB and 1024MB caches. Obviously, the larger caches are better, especially on bigger capacity drives.

As an example of how messed up Toshiba is on Amazon.com, clicking “Visit the Toshiba Store” sometimes takes you to Toshiba kitchen products.

These prices need to be more consistent and gouge less.

(Image credit: Toshiba)Toshiba N300 4TB: Design

Since its launch, Toshiba has developed several proprietary technologies for the N300 and has kept them consistent across the product line.

These include Stable Platter Technology, which uses a tied spindle motor to secure the drive shaft at both ends. This reduces system-induced vibration and is directly comparable with WD's 3D Active Balance Plus approach. Both address the same problem, where in a multi-drive enclosure, vibration from one drive affects the others.

Also special to the N300 is Dynamic Cache Technology, a self-contained algorithm with on-board buffer management that optimises cache allocation between read and write operations in real time. From the outset, the N300 has typically had more cache than its competition, so managing the use of that is important for performance.

One of the hidden issues with faster-rotating drives is wear, and on the N300, this is addressed in a few interesting ways, one being Ramp Load Technology. This parks the read and write heads on a ramp outside the platter surface when the drive is idle. It reduces head wear during power cycles and protects the media surface.

Error recovery control has also been present since the original launch, limiting recovery time to avoid RAID array ejections in the same way that WD's TLER does.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

All these features I’ve mentioned arrived with the first N300 drives, but since then, the N300 has undergone some subtle changes, one of which is the introduction of NASLink Technology.

This fine-tunes drive behaviour for rapid data access and includes firmware-level optimisation for RAID performance through improved disk coordination. The more drives you have in an array, the more important it is that they’re all moving to a common beat, and Toshiba has baked that into the N300 via firmware updates.

Having larger arrays improves performance, but it introduces vibrations that can migrate from one drive to those either side of it. To combat this, the N300 also carries three built-in rotational vibration sensors. These detect and compensate for the knock-on vibration effects that become a serious problem once a NAS enclosure has more than four drives installed.

Overall, while Toshiba hasn’t come up with anything like Seagate IronWolf Health Management. In other respects, this is probably the most sophisticated drive serving the home and small-business NAS market.

However, when Toshiba only offers a three-year warranty and 180TB/year workload, it doesn't seem much like it's that special.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Toshiba N300 4TB: Performance

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

Since Toshiba only provided two of these drives, there seemed little point in trying to work out what array advantages running the N300 offered. Therefore, I went with the same PC analysis that I used on the WD Red Plus and IronWolf drives

Here are my results:

Drives

 

Toshiba N300

WD Red Plus

IronWolf

Part No.

 

HDWG740

WD40EFPX

ST4000VN006

Capacity

 

4TB

4TB

4TB

Cache

 

512MB

256MB

256MB

Rotational Speed

RPM

7200

5400

5400

AJA

 

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

282

187

190

Write

MB/s

283

179

185

ATTO

 

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

291.57

206.24

192.35

Write

MB/s

294.25

197.35

191.76

CrystalDiskMark Default

 

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

299.18

201.23

200.77

Write

MB/s

300.50

208.26

199.33

CrystalDiskMark RealWorld

 

 

 

Read

MB/s

286.95

212.46

200.22

Write

MB/s

290.01

204.42

199.11

PCMark

 

 

 

 

Score

 

651

801

677

Bandwidth

MB/s

99.87

124.49

103.69

MS Winsat

 

 

 

 

Random 16 Read

MB/s

2.37

1.71

1.6

Sequential 64.0 Read

MB/s

218.38

168.53

158.16

Sequential 64.0 Write

MB/s

289.31

204.65

190.5

Read Time with Sequential Writes

ms

4.810

1.385

1.946

Latency:  95th Percentile

ms

31.620

12.685

34.685

Latency: Maximum

ms

75.357

64.723

62.341

Average Read Time with Random Writes

ms

12.021

5.267

9.898

Aside from PCMark10, all other tests show that the N300 is a country mile faster than either of the alternative NAS drives with the same capacity. I can put those results down to the increased rotational speed and also the 512MB cache on the N300.

One extra test I did perform on a NAS was to take a single drive on a Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS, connect to it over a 2.5GbE LAN link, and bench test it from my PC.

I achieved read and write speeds over 285MB/s, which is the practical limit of 2.5GbE LAN ports. That with a single N300 drive, you can saturate a 2.5GbE Link is impressive, and it implies that with four drives in a RAID 5 configuration, you should be able to saturate a 10GbE LAN port. To do that on both WD and Seagate would involve moving up to their Red Pro or IronWolf Pro range.

Based on these numbers alone, the N300 might be worth what Toshiba is asking for it, depending on how your NAS is configured and if raw speed is important to that system.

However, I should also point out that the power consumption on the N300 is dramatically more than on the Seagate and WD drives. The current 4TB N300 draws 7.43W typical under active operating load, where the Red Plus only consumes 4.7W and the IronWolf 4.8W.

And, the N300 will be converting most of that power into heat, regrettably. If you already have a machine room where the cooling isn't coping, then maybe using these drives might not be the best plan. 

Toshiba N300 4TB: Final verdict

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

If this drive were cheaper and Toshiba had technology like the IronWolf Health Management scheme, there would be little debate about this being one of the best options.

However, there are a few things about NAS and RAID arrays that make this choice slightly more complicated.

For starters, the majority of NAS are bottlenecked by their LAN connections, so if you only have a NAS with a 1GbE or 2.5GbE LAN port, then you won’t see the improved performance of the N300 over the WD Red Plus or IronWolf. If you do have a 10GbE LAN port, it will be saturated with four drives; extra drives won’t make any difference unless you have multiple LAN ports and bandwidth aggregation.

What you do get with the N300 is internal NAS performance, which, if you are running AI on your NAS, might be a factor. However, most people using their NAS that way use NVMe drives for caching, allowing them to get higher performance from 5400RPM drives.  Rebuilds will be quicker, but the value of that comes down to whether the NAS is a point-of-service or other mission-critical function, and it assumes that a drive (or drives) dies in the first place to trigger the rebuild.

The fly in this ointment is the price, because for a four bay NAS, that’s a jump from roughly $800 in storage to $1200, and for that increase, you might consider Pro-level media.

Interestingly, currently the WD Red Pro 4TB is $250, offers 7200RPM spindle speeds, for less than the 4TB N300 on Amazon.com. And deals on IronWolf Pro models undercut Toshiba's pricing at that retailer.

In the UK, the IronWolf Pro 4TB is only £169.99, the WD Red Pro is £234.75, making the £195.15 N300 4TB a better deal than the WD, but much worse than the Seagate drive.

That’s the biggest issue here, because Toshiba aimed this product to hit the open ground between the entry-level NAS drives and the Pro series mechanisms, and now adjusted the price to compete with the premium layer. These Pro drives have 300TB/yr workload ratings and a 5-year warranty, whereas the N300 only has 180TB/yr and a 3-year warranty.

Based on these Toshiba defined ratings, it can't compete on reliability.

While I expect that if I tested the N300 against the Pro hardware, it would do well, since both of the competing brands typically only include 256MB of cache, not 512MB. But those who buy those mechanisms are looking for longevity above all else.

Overall, I liked the N300, as it takes less time to get operational on a NAS and in small arrays, the performance is excellent. But I can’t get on board with Toshiba’s pricing, which seems excessively high in some regions and lacks any consistency.

For more storage solutions, we've reviewed the best NAS devices.

The IoT and AI are a likely partnership: IoT generates and captures data, often in large volume, AI is ideally placed to analyze it.

Combined, AIoT presents new opportunities, so much so that Transforma Insights forecasts no fewer than 9.1 billion AIoT connections at the end of 2033, a more than six-fold increase in 10 years.

The potential for AI in the IoT is far-reaching, and one standout application is enhanced security.

The security risk to the IoT

All connected devices are under growing levels of threat, but the IoT is particularly targeted. According to Beaming’s cyberthreat report into UK businesses, IoT devices were most frequently attacked in 2024. They are attractive targets for the data they exchange and their potential to be compromised.

The devices are often unmanned and generally sit outside corporate security perimeters. They may be in remote spots, where they could be subject to unauthorized physical access attempts, and often remain in place for long periods of time. Many, such as the IoT devices used in energy, transport, utilities and retail, transfer sensitive data of high value.

Businesses need confidence that data collected through the IoT—both real-time and historical—comes from secure and trusted sources, not least when it comes to developing and training AI models. In this, the IoT works with digital twins, which are digital representations of physical objects or systems.

The IoT enables the seamless flow of real-world data between the physical and the digital, while the digital twin’s attributes provide the features for AI modelling. Historical data collected through IoT is then used to train and refine the AI model.

How AI is helping secure the IoT

AI applies its automation and analytical capabilities to many tasks and priorities. It is making inroads into cybersecurity, something that has not gone unnoticed. Last year, the IEEE revealed almost half of the global technology leaders it surveyed (47%) expect vulnerability identification and attack prevention to be a top use of AI in 2026.

That may be some comfort to enterprises and connectivity and solutions providers grappling with the problem of protecting IoT devices and applications. This challenge is compounded by the fact that attackers are increasingly using AI themselves to automate phishing, accelerate reconnaissance and develop adaptive malware that evades traditional detection. However, it is more comforting still, that AI is already making a difference in the IoT, redefining how organizations protect their devices.

AI-powered anomaly and threat detection (ATD) is helping security teams identify threats like suspicious network traffic and botnet activity faster and improving resilience across large-scale IoT environments, something enterprises must strive for.

In the recent past, the focus on the IoT was arguably getting devices online. That is no longer the challenge; the test now is keeping them operational: compliance readiness and the flexibility to adapt to ever-evolving commercial and technological changes. It also means maintaining resilience.

IoT security must follow a clear defend against, detect and react approach to swiftly counter attacks. No one or two of these three measures are enough without the others.

How AI improves IoT visibility and incident response

AI-powered ATD detects anomalous behavior, such as remote code execution, abnormal port connection or a suspicious IP. These could indicate the beginnings of a cyberattack on an IoT device. It analyses the anomaly and can identify the attack type, be it distributed denial of service (DDoS), man-in-the-middle (MiTM) or an attempted device takeover.

ATD can then trigger direct action, if business rules dictate an automated response. This could take the form of threat isolation or referring the incident for full review.

Anomaly and threat detection protects over one million devices

ATD runs entirely in the mobile core network infrastructure, rather than through software agents on a device, so it can be retrofitted to existing systems.

Enterprises that have identified IP backdoors and Mirai botnet infections within hours.

With IP backdoors, ATD detects unusual outbound connections, or traffic, to suspicious IPs. Such backdoors may allow remote control or data exfiltration, both of which leave identifiable behavioral traces.

In the case of Mirai, anomalous behavior typically exhibits as spikes in outbound traffic, uncommon ports use, or repetitive scanning of external IPs. ATD can flag these irregularities in real time and trigger corrective actions, such as blocking or quarantining the device, blocking or throttling traffic or patching firmware.

Automation and analytics can shape the next phase of IoT security

There is a clear shift in IoT implementation and management. It is insufficient to plan for device deployment, sit back and gather the data. Without a strategy that accounts for the stresses, threats and changes that beset IoT estates, enterprises risk costly surprises like unplanned site visits and service disruptions.

AI, through automation and analytics, can shape the next phase of IoT security. Enterprises that detect, analyze and even automatically address, anomalous activity reduce the risk of cyberattack-related outages and inconvenient site visits to access devices.

Sending field technicians to maintain or repair devices can add significantly to total cost of ownership. Each truck roll, which incurs expenses for labor, fuel, vehicle wear and often missed productivity opportunities, can add up to over $1000 per site visit.

IoT downtime, meanwhile disrupts operations and can have a catastrophic reputational, as well as financial, cost.

How to balance innovation, data privacy and operational control

Enterprises are, for the most part, keen to innovate through AI but have understandable questions about data privacy and operational control.

It is important to know what AI does, in all process integrations, to understand why it does it and to have control that prevents AI deviating from its purpose.

On data privacy, ATD isn’t installed on IoT devices. Only packet headers from device cloud communications are mirrored from the mobile core to the ATD engine, with threat levels and AI-driven insights relayed through a customer portal.

Operational control is maintained through the business rules that dictate how the ATD engine reacts. The option to refer an anomaly for review, for example, gives enterprises the flexibility to incorporate human oversight, under predetermined circumstances.

This is especially useful when you consider there can be genuine reasons why a SIM may increase or cease communication, that an incident reviewer will understand.

AI-powered IoT security

AI is making a difference to the speed, efficiency and depth of response to cyberthreats. Automation and advanced analytics within IoT solutions’ security measures also help enterprises manage costs, by minimizing labor-intensive manual tasks and site visits, and reducing the risk of expensive cyberattack reparations.

For CISOs, CIOs, product and operations managers seeking to maximize IoT value and protect their enterprise IT domains from external threats, AI-powered ATD offers visibility and actionable insights to take IoT security to the next level.

We've reviewed and ranked the best antivirus software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

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