Just trust me, ok?

The FCC's "U.S. Cyber Trust Mark" could undermine its own goals.

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IoT For All
January 16, 2025

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Last week, the FCC and White House officially launched the “U.S. Cyber Trust Mark.” The new cybersecurity label is designed to go on certified pieces of consumer IoT gear, ideally letting buyers know which baby monitors are less likely to be hacked, or which security cameras are less likely to be viewable by random strangers on the internet. The FCC likens the program to Energy Star, in hopes it can educate consumers, incentivize more secure products, and make the world a better and brighter place. 

It could very well have the opposite effect. 

Energy Star certification signals something very practically useful to prospective buyers: “This product is more energy efficient than the one you already have, and the upgrade will put money back in your pocket!” But cybersecurity is a much murkier value proposition. The very best outcome of good security is that nothing happens. Also you may have to do some digital chores like installing updates and changing passwords to keep it that way. 

And the Cyber Trust Mark’s flagship feature does not aim to minimize or eliminate those chores. Instead, it provides a todo list. As the FCC explains: 

Once the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark label is on products, it will be accompanied by a QR code that you can scan with your wireless phone to read easy-to-understand, security-related information about that particular product.  This information will include:

▪ How to change the default password

▪ How to configure the device securely

▪ Whether updates/patches are automatic and if not, how consumers can access them

▪ The product's minimum support period end date or a statement that the device is not supported by the manufacturer and the consumer should not rely on the manufacturer to release security updates

As security experts have pointed out, this approach not only fails to bolster the baseline security of products out of the box, but also allows the mark to be used on products with wildly different levels of default protection. Devices with bare-minimum security measures can sit on the shelf bearing the same label as their infinitely more secure competitors just because they disclose their deficiencies behind a QR code. The result? A very false sense of security. 

The U.S Cyber Trust Mark addresses a very real need. Poorly secured IoT devices are routinely enlisted into malicious botnets and the security profile of any given product can be incredibly opaque to the people who are using them. But the program, at best, will only ameliorate a small sliver of the problem while potentially sweeping other aspects further under the rug. 

The first devices bearing the U.S Cyber Trust Mark are expected to start cropping up as early as this year. But the first high-profile security breach involving one of those same products might not be too far behind.  

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