Bipartisan Group Proposes IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act

[Guest]

The bill seeks to ensure that IoT devices sold to the U.S. government meet security requirements.

Bipartisan Group Proposes IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act : Read more

 

[boosted1g]

So in a nutshell the consumer devices will be just as insecure as they currently are and government funded entities/contracts will have to buy the compliant model that the IOT company put a 4-8x markup on.

 

[Dragon4570]

This is merely step one in the process. If they can get it through then it opens the door to regulation of IoT devices being sold in the U.S. to everyone. I would love to see them make it mandatory that they be set up with passwords that have to be changed immediately after installation at the very least. Too many people just leave it at the default password and proceed about their business thinking they are just fine.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

Maybe I'm skeptical... but "step one" could be the only direction it goes, skipping regular consumers altogether. It wouldn't be hard at all to have the proposed bill do something about all IoT security on the private, business, and government sectors.

It sounds more to me of these senators are more worried about the security of what happens behind closed doors than consumers. The talk of consumer security later feels like it is just there to placate us. I don't know if these particular senator's jobs are up for voting on in 2018, but 2018 is just around the corner and some senate seats are sure to be up for election. I'm sure with the way voting has gone recently, they have wised up enough to avoid alienating the voters that pay attention instead of counting on a blind following.

 

[Marcus52]

They seem to be unaware that government entities are just as threatened by insecure consumer devices as consumers are.

 

[boosted1g]

They seem to be unaware that government entities are just as threatened by insecure consumer devices as consumers are.

This is another time where I have to wonder if the congressmen are seriously that ignorant, or if it is more back-table dealing with lobbyists/corporations.
Any government entity should have their own IA and/or DISA requirements to meet, which would include things like don't use the default password. Not to mention that any facility with anything sensitive should logically have some firewall rules in place. Thus 90% of the insecurities should already be taken care of.
So by regulating JUST the government devices all it is really going to do is greatly increase the cost for government purchase of the accredited IOT device and offer very little additional security.

 

[falchard]

Bi-partisan. When you decide to take all the negative traits of one party and combine them with the negative traits of the other party to create a bill that has no redeeming qualities.

 

[washmc]

Ron Wyden is from Oregon fyi