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from the all-your-boink-detecting-mattresses-are-belong-to-us dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found an interesting story over at The Register about regulating the security of IoT devices:
Washington DC think tank the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology is calling for regulation on "negligence" in the design of internet-of-things (IoT) devices.
Researchers James Scott and Drew Spaniel point out in their report Rise of the Machines: The Dyn Attack Was Just a Practice Run [PDF] that IoT represents a threat that is only beginning to be understood.
The pair say the risk that regulation could stifle market-making IoT innovation (like the WiFi cheater-detection mattress) is outweighed by the need to stop feeding Shodan.
"National IoT regulation and economic incentives that mandate security-by-design are worthwhile as best practices, but regulation development faces the challenge of ... security-by-design without stifling innovation, and remaining actionable, implementable and binding," Scott and Spaniel say.
[...] State level regulation would be "disastrous" to markets and consumers alike.
Does the ability of a company to make money now outweigh the security of our digital homes and devices?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12 2016, @12:51PM
Sounds good for geeks. Not so good for the average user. Because the average user just isn't going to make the effort to sysadmin their devices. You can complain about stupid lusers or whatever, but any solution that goes against human nature rather than taking advantage of human nature is no solution at all.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday December 12 2016, @03:48PM
Even for the rest of us, how much time do we have to audit code? Making a half-hearted attempt at it is pretty much a waste of time. Just trying to keep up with the myriad bug fixes by other people can be a full time job, especially if you've got more than on IoT thingy. It was bad enough when it was pretty much just Windows and a couple other significant programs that you had to keep track of.