News brief: U.S. Cyber Trust Mark update and how to prepare

We live in a connected world. And while smart televisions, kitchen appliances, security cameras, baby monitors, robot vacuums, lawnmowers and fitness trackers make life undeniably more convenient, they also enable threat actors to virtually access users' homes -- and possibly their employers' corporate networks.

Cybersecurity leaders and data privacy advocates have long called for improvements in IoT security. In 2023, the federal government announced it would create a voluntary certification program to validate that participating IoT manufacturers have equipped their devices with foundational security capabilities.

The program has been in development since then, with the goal of accepting device submissions by the end of 2025. But an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) into the program's lead administrator is putting the initiative's timeline in question.

This week's featured articles look at the status of the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark initiative and what IoT device manufacturers can ...