Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

Smart home devices are potentially one of the bigger security threats since there is no easy way to check what they are up to on your network. That’s a problem Princeton University has set out to solve, with the Princeton IoT Inspector.

And:

The tool is Mac-only for now. Using it, you can see:

• a list of all the IoT devices on your home network
• when they exchange data with an external server
• which servers they contact
• whether those connections are secure

Nice find. I’ve long thought about a user friendly device you could add to your network, have it build a list of devices you know about, give them names (such as Dave’s Switch, or Emma’s Mac, etc.), then have it automatically report (send you a text, perhaps) whenever a new, unknown device hopped onto your network.

To extend that idea, how about adding in the ability to detect cellular communications, within a short radius, reporting on those devices as well.

There are lots of solutions out there that do some of these things, but none I’ve found that do all of them, and none in a particularly friendly, efficient way. Please do weigh in if you know of something along these lines.

In the meantime, this Princeton tool is a nice one to explore. Though it’s not part of the Mac App Store, so do so at your own risk.