The governments of Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom have united in the belief that the Internet of Things (IoT) offers tremendous economic and social benefits, and appropriate cybersecurity requirements must be built into these connected products.
The continued growth in IoT offers great benefits to citizens and a revolution in connectivity. However, many of these products currently need more basic cybersecurity provisions. As a result, the security, privacy and safety of consumers are at risk, with the wider economy vulnerable to large-scale cyber-attacks.
“Our approach supports growth and innovation and allows citizens to benefit from the remarkable opportunities offered by this connected revolution,” read an excerpt from the states’ released joint statement.
In response, the three governments are working together to promote and support the development of international standards and industry guidance, thereby fostering innovation and encouraging approaches that incorporate internationally recognized security requirements.
“Through this global alignment, we can reduce duplication of testing and similar assessments and the challenge for the industry of needing to apply to multiple schemes underpinned by identical or very similar requirements,” they explained.
International standards can facilitate strong security practices, and the adoption of these standards is encouraged to mitigate cyber risks and reduce unnecessary barriers to trade and industry.
A report found that over half of IoT devices may be vulnerable to attack. Some of the biggest IoT cybersecurity issues that need to be solved are authentication/authorization, access control and data encryption. In line with this, the most widely used techniques in IoT security are behavior analytics, threat intelligence, communication security and cryptography.