Hacker-proof security gadgets introduced at CES

While you might expect such devices to have grown in importance, the reality was that even fewer such products seemed to be on show, compared to last year. There were only 18 companies at the cyber and personal security 'marketplace' in 2016, out of 3,631 attending businesses - or just under half of one percent. Many more products at the show had a security element, from WiFi home cameras to VPN software, but of devices designed specifically for consumers to enhance their digital security there was relatively little on show.

Ledger, a Paris and San Francisco-based startup, won attention in 2015 for their simple smart card-based product designed to add a second-factor authentication layer to Bitcoin transactions. This year they came to CES with something much more ambitious, the 'Ledger Blue', a small, touchscreen device designed to act as a secure, standalone 'black box' for everything you want to keep private.

By combining an EAL6 secure chip, a hack-resistant crypto library and a trusted, built-in display, structured around a ST31 secure microcontroller, this small touchscreen device, which costs around $100, is potentially your next best asset in a world where all of your digital transactions are carried out on eminently hackable devices.

"Bitcoin and Blockchain are gaining a lot of traction, because they are fundamentally better than what we have today in the mainstream. What form it will eventually take - Bitcoin or private Blockchain - we don't know yet, and time will tell. But in any case, Bitcoin relies on public key-private key cryptography and there is an absolute need to secure the private keys," said Ledger co-founder Thomas France.

"The difference with Ledger Blue is that it has a built-in screen that is piloted by the secure environment."

In practice that means this small device can fulfil dozens of security functions. It can power secure Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain transactions. It acts as a secure key for Google, Dropbox, Github and many other online services. It has a suite of PGP tools that allow you to authenticate and encrypt emails, manage your digital identity and protect it from snoopers. It's basically David Cameron's worst nightmare, in a 97mm by 68mm box.

Still, he admits the idea of carrying a personal security device is "niche", with most tech users unaware of their vulnerabilities let alone the tech designed to help negate them. "The match between consumer electronics and security is... not a perfect fit," he says. "For end user security products it's still niche, we know that this product we want to sell it for end users but it's really for privacy-aware and security aware people. It's going to grow, but it's still niche."

If there was one organisation at CES taking a special interest in security above all others, it was the American Federal Trade Commission. Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the FTC, used her speech at CES in 2015 to call for greater awareness for the security implications inherent in the IoT. This year, ahead of the show, she told the Washington Post that the same issues are if anything more important 12 months on. "I can't emphasise the importance of data security enough," she said. "Given the volume of information that's being gathered and given the sensitivity of the information being gathered, in my mind, preserving and protecting that information is incredibly and increasingly vital."