The Biden administration announces a cybersecurity labeling program for smart devices

The Biden administration and major consumer technology players on Tuesday launched an effort to put a nationwide cybersecurity certification and labeling program in place to help consumers choose smart devices that are less vulnerable to hacking. The Cyber Trust initiative was first announced in October following a meeting between White House and tech industry representatives. The proliferation of so-called smart devices has coincided with growing cybercrime in which one insecure device can often give a cyberintruder a dangerous foothold on a home network. An April report from the cybersecurity firm Bitdefender and networking equipment company NetGear, based on their monitoring of smart homes, found that the most vulnerable devices in 2022 were, far and away, smart TVs, followed by smart plugs, routers and digital video recorders. Providers of numerous smart home devices often don’t update and patch software fast enough to thwart newly emerging malware threats.