EU to Toughen Rules on Smart Devices

It was reported on September 8th that according to a European Commission document, smart devices connected to the Internet, such as refrigerators and TVs, will have to comply with strict European Union cybersecurity rules or risk being fined or banned from the market.

 Concerns over cybersecurity attacks have grown in recent years with high-profile incidents of hackers sabotaging businesses and demanding large ransoms.

 The EU executive will announce a proposal on September 13th, called the Cyber Resilience Act. Depending on the opinions of EU countries, the bill is likely to become law.

 As reported, the rules could reduce the cost of corporate cyber incidents by as much as €290 billion ($289.8 billion) a year, while the compliance costs of about €29 billion.

 The document says manufacturers will have to assess the cybersecurity risks of their products and adopt appropriate procedures to address them.

 Once these companies discover a problem, they must notify ENISA, the EU cybersecurity agency, of the incident within 24 hours and take steps to resolve the problem.

 Importers and distributors will be asked to verify that the products comply with the EU rules.

 According to the report, if a company does not comply, the national watchdogs can prohibit or restrict the sale of relevant products in its domestic market, withdraw or recall the products from that market.