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A Federal Trade Commission attempt to rein in a poorly secured IoT device is raising questions over whether the U.S. regulator has the power to crack down on vendors suspected of shoddy practices.
On Thursday, the FTC filed a complaint against Taiwanese manufacturer D-Link Systems that charged the company's internet routers and web cameras can easily be hacked, putting consumers at risk.
But the FTC's complaint doesn't cite evidence that the products have been breached, only the potential for harm to consumers.
That's among the reasons D-Link is contesting the complaint. "Notably, the complaint does not allege any breach of a D-Link Systems device," it said in a statement.
"Instead, the FTC speculates that consumers were placed 'at risk' to be hacked, but fails to allege, as it must, that actual consumers suffered," the company said.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @07:45PM
While on the face of it I think that this actually is a good idea -- that is, to punish manufactures that make internet appliances that are blantantly insecure.
However, what worries me is that this will lead to a regulation scheme that requires that every single device connected to the internet be government approved, and in a government approved configuration. That homebrew router you want to use? Banned. That computer running an open source operating system? Banned. Devices without a government backdoor for access? Banned. You get the idea. So, I'm kind of torn on this issue.