Does the Internet of Things need an indie security assessor?
The Internet toaster that's browning your crumpets, talking to its home servers, and participating in a ransomware-distributing botnet should get the kind of cyber-safety testing that it gets for physical safety.
That is, at least, a growing view among Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) members, if an IEEE Spectrum piece by Tekla Perry is anything to go by.
Perry, a long-time senior editor at the IEEE, writes here that the idea of some kind of “CyberUL” (referring to Underwriters' Laboratories, home of one of the world's coolest jobs – destroying things in the name of safety), because as things now stand, pretty much any old rubbish is getting pushed out the door by unicorns and old nags, just so long as it ticks the “smart device”, “Internet of Things” and “big data” boxes.
