A family home has more ways in than doors: the router, the cameras, the TV, the baby monitor, everyone’s phone, and the email account that can reset the lot. Here is each one, and how HARD closes it.
Scroll to walk through the house, or choose a number.
1The router from your internet company
Everything in the house goes through it, and it’s often years behind on firmware, with the admin password still on its sticker and UPnP, WPS and remote admin switched on.
HARD for Mac reads its make, model and firmware, checks them against every flaw in the US National Vulnerability Database and CISA’s list of flaws used in attacks, and tells you if UPnP is on.
On Operator, your engineer updates it or replaces it, changes the admin password, and turns off WPS and remote admin.
2The Wi-Fi
It doesn’t stop at your walls: anyone within range can try the password, and once they’re on, they can reach every device in the house.
HARD for Mac names every device on your Wi-Fi, flags the ones it can’t identify, and tells you when a new one joins.
On Operator, your engineer sets a long password and splits the network: one for your family’s phones and computers, one for everything else.
3The video doorbell and cameras
They stream your front door to an account in the cloud, so a default password, old firmware or a reused password lets someone else watch, and know when you’re away.
HARD for Mac finds every camera on your Wi-Fi and warns when its video stream or a Telnet login is open to anything else on the network.
On Operator, your engineer moves them to local recording where the camera allows it, and onto the smart-device network, away from your phones and computers.
4The smart lock and the garage door
Both open from an app, so anyone who gets into the account behind that app can let themselves in.
Many sign in with your Google, Amazon or Apple account, and the HARD extension notices when those sign-ins only needed a password and takes you to the setting for two-step verification.
On Operator, your engineer turns on two-step verification for every account that controls the house, and watches their sign-ins.
5The smart TV and streamer
They’re online all day, stop getting updates after a few years, and some report what you watch back to the maker.
A TV can’t run an app like HARD, so HARD for Mac checks it from the outside: what it is, and any login it leaves open that shouldn’t be.
On Operator, your engineer moves it to the smart-device network, turns on filtering so it can’t reach known-bad sites, and turns off viewing data where the TV allows.
6The smart speaker
It’s tied to your accounts and your shopping, and it does what it hears, from you, a visitor or a voice on the TV.
It runs on your Amazon, Google or Apple account, and the HARD extension notices when that account’s sign-in only needs a password.
On Operator, your engineer turns off voice purchasing, sets a voice PIN for the locks, and moves the speaker to the smart-device network.
7The baby monitor
Wi-Fi baby monitors left on default passwords and old firmware have been found and watched by strangers, some of whom talked through them.
HARD for Mac finds it and warns when its video stream or its login is open to anything on your Wi-Fi, with what to change.
On Operator, your engineer changes its password, updates it, and moves it to its own network.
8The kids’ tablet and games console
Kids install what their friends recommend and chat with people they’ve never met, and links promising free skins and free Robux are written for them.
On the Family plan your kids get HARD on their iPhone, Mac and browser too, so fake sites are stopped before they load and scam texts go to Junk.
On Operator, your engineer opens only the ports the console needs instead of leaving UPnP on, and turns on filtering, so bad sites are blocked on the tablet too.
9The work laptop
It shares the Wi-Fi with every camera and gadget in the house, so one hacked gadget can reach it, and a break-in at home becomes a break-in at work.
HARD for Mac checks it like any Mac: missing updates that attackers are using, disk encryption, the firewall, and anyone sitting in the middle of its connection.
On Operator, your engineer keeps it on the family network, away from the smart devices.
10The printer and the NAS
Nobody updates them, and a NAS full of family photos and backups is exactly what ransomware gangs look for when one is reachable from the internet.
HARD for Mac finds them and warns about logins that send passwords unencrypted, like Telnet and FTP.
On Operator, your engineer updates them, keeps the NAS off the internet, and makes sure there’s a backup ransomware can’t reach.
11Everyone’s phone
This is where scams arrive: a text from a new number, a call that sounds like your daughter, a bank that wants your money moved today.
HARD for iPhone files scam texts under Junk, checks any message or call in Is this legit?, and gives your family HARD codes that a cloned voice can’t know.
On Operator, your engineer picks up, at any hour, when something doesn’t feel right.
12Guests’ and staff’s devices
Phones and laptops you don’t look after join your Wi-Fi, and the cleaner, the nanny and last summer’s guests still know the password.
HARD for Mac tells you when a device you haven’t seen before joins your Wi-Fi, and a guest network keeps visitors off the one your family uses.
On Operator, your engineer sets up the guest network, changes its password when staff change, and checks what has joined the Wi-Fi with HARD for Mac.
13The solar inverter and EV charger
They’re online so the installer can keep an eye on them, and researchers have found dozens of flaws in popular inverters that could let someone take control.
HARD for Mac finds them on your Wi-Fi and flags any login on them that shouldn’t be open.
On Operator, your engineer moves them to the smart-device network, keeps them updated, and turns on two-step verification for their apps.
14Your email, the master key
Almost every app that runs the house, from the cameras to the lock, resets its password by email, so whoever gets into your email can get into the house.
The HARD extension stops fake sign-in pages, warns when your Google, Microsoft or Apple password is typed on the wrong site, and notices when your sign-in only needed a password.
On Operator, your engineer turns on two-step verification everywhere, and watches your sign-ins and new breaches.
Every way in, closed.
On Personal and Family, HARD shows you what’s open in your home and how to close it, then keeps watching your Mac, iPhone and browser.
On Operator, your engineer does the work in every home you have: the router, the Wi-Fi, a separate network for smart devices, and filtering.
Ten steps close most of the ways in. On Personal and Family you do them, and HARD tells you which ones your home still needs. On Operator, your engineer does them for you.
StepYou, with HARDYour engineer, on Operator
HARD for Mac tells you when your router is missing published fixes. Update it from the router’s app or settings page.
Your engineer updates it, or replaces a router that no longer gets fixes.
Start with the router, the cameras and the baby monitor. HARD for Mac points out the ones with open logins.
Your engineer changes them and keeps them in your family’s password manager.
All three are switches in the router’s settings. HARD for Mac tells you when UPnP is on.
Your engineer turns them off and opens only what a games console really needs.
Most routers have a second network for the TV, cameras, speakers and plugs. HARD’s Wi-Fi scan shows you which devices to move.
Your engineer sets up separate networks for the family, smart devices, work and guests.
Turn on the guest network, and change its password when staff change.
Your engineer sets it up and changes the password when people leave.
On a Mac, one switch in HARD turns on Cloudflare’s encrypted DNS, with malware or adult-site blocking if you want it.
Your engineer sets up DNS filtering on the router, so known-bad sites are blocked for every device on the Wi-Fi.
Choose local recording if the camera offers it. If it doesn’t, protect its account with two-step verification.
Your engineer moves them to local recording where the camera allows, and onto the smart-device network.
The HARD extension notices Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft sign-ins that only needed a password, and links to the setting.
Your engineer turns it on for every account, from your email to the garage door, and watches the sign-ins.
HARD for Mac names each device and tells you when a new one joins.
Your engineer checks every device on the Wi-Fi with HARD for Mac, and looks into any that can’t be named.
On Family, HARD codes give each of you a six-digit code that changes every 30 seconds. A cloned voice can’t know it.
The same codes, and an engineer who picks up when a call doesn’t feel right.
Tick off what you’ve done. Your ticks stay in this browser.
Do it yourself, or have it done.
With the HARD app
HARD for Mac and iPhone and the extension for Chrome and Brave. It finds what’s open on your Wi-Fi, tells you how to close it, and stops the scams that come through the door anyway.
Everything in Family, plus a senior engineer of your own who hardens every home, secures each one’s network and keeps it that way, and picks up at any hour.
