The government department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is working to ensure consumer “smart” devices are more secure, with security built in from the start.
Matt Warman, Minister for Digital Infrastructure has said “This government wants you and your families to be safe online. In these extraordinary circumstances, we all increasingly rely on internet-connected products to socialise, work and live out our lives. You should be able to trust that those products – whether they be watches, speakers, doorbells or baby monitors – are designed and built securely”.
At the moment, many manufacturers concentrate on producing their products cheaply and leave security to be a minor feature, not worth investment. Their products are shipped with very basic security and little advice to the buyer. This puts people at risk as consumers will assume a product is safely setup and trust the seller has put in the effort to ensure safety, but this is often not the case.
The government say that Cyber security is at the heart of their approach to digital technology, and plays a critical role in ensuring people and businesses can benefit from the huge opportunities of technology.
In 2018, DCMS published a Code of Practice for Consumer Internet of Things Security and have been supporting the development of the first industry standard on consumer smart product security.
Despite widespread adoption of the guidelines in the Code of Practice for Consumer Internet of Things Security, both in the UK and overseas, change has not been swift enough, with poor security still commonplace.
In January 2020 the government announced the intention to bring in legislation to ensure stronger security is built into consumer smart products. This work has been progressing in collaboration with industry leaders and cyber security experts.
The government response to the 2020 call for views on proposals for regulating the cyber security of consumer smart devices was published on 21 April 2021.
We need this to move as so products can be safe by design not by accident or not at all.
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