A new bill designed to identify, verify, and label compliant Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices with strong cybersecurity standards has been introduced by two federal lawmakers.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., late last week introduced the bicameral Cyber Shield Act of 2017 that would cover any connected consumer device that can collect, send or receive data. If passed the first action the government would take is to assemble the Cyber Shield Advisory Committee which would have one year to lay out the format and content of the Cyber Shield product labels that would be required under the law to be placed on IoT devices.
To ensure the committee members are technically competent to create these standard's the bill states, “The Advisory Committee shall be composed of members appointed by the Secretary from among individuals who are specially qualified to serve on the Advisory Committee based on their education, training, or experience.”
“The IoT will also stand for the Internet of Threats unless we put in place appropriate cybersecurity safeguards. With as many as 50 billion IoT devices projected to be in our pockets and homes by 2020, cybersecurity will continue to pose a direct threat to economic prosperity, privacy, and our nation's security,” Markey said.