The proliferation of smart consumer products like Web cameras and television sets in homes has made such Internet of Things (IoT) devices targets of hackers.

But recent developments could offer consumers some protection against IoT malware and hacks.

Yesterday, local Internet service provider (ISP) ViewQwest launched a new service that it said could secure a consumer's home broadband connection by scanning for and blocking threats at the network level, without the user having to install any software on their IoT devices. It acts as an important first line of defense to provide peace of mind to IoT device users without making them jump through hoops to download security patches for every individual computing device on the same home network.