The UK launches a new draft to force manufacturers to improve the security of smart devices
According to BBC reports, the British government has recently introduced a new draft on consumer device safety. The draft is currently basically completed and awaiting review by the legislature, the British Parliament.
This new bill focuses on consumer device security, covering smartphones, smart TVs, household appliances, and other Internet of Things devices, with the goal of improving security.
The bill will establish safety standards for equipment manufacturers and require equipment manufacturers to investigate, repair, and report to consumers and the government on all security vulnerabilities.
If the manufacturer fails to comply with the regulations, it can be fined up to 10 million pounds or 4% of global turnover, as well as an additional daily fine of 20,000 pounds after continuous violations.
The security of consumer devices has always been poor. Many smartphones and IoT devices cannot get updates after they are released, resulting in long-term security vulnerabilities that cannot be repaired.
This includes not only many smartphones equipped with Android systems, but also many other devices such as routers, thermostats, dishwashers, home smart doorbells, and so on.
Failure to fix the vulnerabilities means that they are more vulnerable to attacks. At present, it is common that many private webcams around the world are turned into live broadcasts due to vulnerabilities.
The Minister of Digital Infrastructure in the United Kingdom stated that our bill will require the installation of firewalls for daily technologies and that if security standards are violated, hefty fines will be imposed.
The British government stated that the new cyber security system will be supervised by a regulatory agency, which will be designated to impose various penalties on companies that violate the regulations after the bill comes into effect.
In addition, the bill also requires telecom operators to update the codes of infrastructure such as cellular base stations to prevent attackers from using cellular base stations to steal private information from consumers.
