Congress introduces bill to improve ‘internet of things’ security

Connected devices are notorious for their shoddy security and Congress is hoping to fix that.

Members of the US Senate and House of Representatives introduced the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act on Monday, hoping to bring legislative action to the emerging technology.

Connected devices are expected to boom to 20.4 billion units by 2020, but they don’t all have the same levels of security. Hackers often target IoT devices that don’t have built-in security, leading to problems like default passwords and vulnerabilities that can’t be fixed.

At a Senate hearing last year, Lt. General Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers that insecure IoT devices are one of the “most important emerging cyberthreats” to US national security.

[Read More]