14 DAY TRIAL // Turris, a hardware manufacturer from the Czech Republic, has launched a crowd-funding campaign to help it build a new router concept, one that focuses, above all, on the user's security.
The router, codenamed Turris Omnia, will be programmed with special firmware capable of contacting its manufacturer's servers to download and then self-install updates.
Turris also says that whenever security threats are identified, its staff will provide firmware upgrades, which will be applied using an over-the-air update model, similar to the one used by Google, Samsung, or LG.
The router will work on top of the OpenWrt GNU/Linux distribution
The router's software will be based on a modified version of the OpenWrt project, a GNU/Linux distribution specifically designed to run on small embedded systems (IoT devices with memory and storage limitations).
The company also says the router's operating system will be open-sourced, along with its self-update systems, in the spirit of the Linux FOSS ideology. This means patching will go must faster and won't depend on the skill and awareness of the Turris staff.
At the moment of writing this article, more than 1,300 people have pledged funds to the Turris Omnia router concept, the project racking up almost $280,000 / €265,000.
The router will also come with its own mobile app
Based on the project's IndieGoGo goals, besides the router itself, users have now also helped finance features like multiple router case colors, a mobile app for remote controlling the router, and an extensions API, similar to the one used by Raspberry PI.
While now the router looks like it will be 100% manufactured, we still need details on how the self-update mechanism works. This is because the very same system that places it above all the other routers can also serve as a trojan horse and allow attackers to rewrite the router's firmware if the self-update mechanism is ever breached.
