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policy


WHITE HOUSE TO UNVEIL AMBITIOUS CYBERSECURITY LABELING EFFORT MODELED AFTER
ENERGY STAR


Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne
Neuberger speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on
March 21, 2022. Neuberger is spearheading the labeling initiative for the White
House. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)


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WRITTEN BY

Suzanne Smalley

Oct 11, 2022 | CyberScoop

Written by Suzanne Smalley
Oct 11, 2022 | CYBERSCOOP

The White House National Security Council will announce plans Tuesday for a
consumer products cybersecurity labeling program intended to improve digital
safeguards on internet-connected devices, a senior White House official told
CyberScoop. 

About 50 representatives from consumer product associations, manufacturing
companies and technology think tanks will convene at the White House on Oct. 19
for a workshop on the voluntary effort ahead of an expected spring 2023 launch.

The White House briefly described the effort in a document it released Tuesday
outlining various cybersecurity initiatives. The administration plans to start
with recommending three or four cybersecurity standards that manufacturers can
use as the basis for labels that communicate the risks associated with using
so-called internet of things devices.

Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Tech Anne Neuberger is
spearheading the initiative, which is modeled after Energy Star, a labeling
program the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy operate
to promote energy efficiency, the senior administration official said.

“Today when folks buy tech, they buy it for a cool feature, speed to market —
cybersecurity is often an afterthought,” said the official, who requested to
remain anonymous to speak candidly about the effort. “Everybody realizes that
it’s an idea whose time has come.”

The administration is working with the European Union to align on standards
since the White House wants products with cybersecurity labels to be sold
globally.

The standards under consideration could rate products based on how often
manufacturers deploy patches for software vulnerabilities or whether devices
connect to the internet without a password, the official said. It is not yet
clear who will verify companies’ claims.

The White House hopes the program will reward companies that invest in
cybersecurity while also helping consumers find safer products. The status quo
in which products hit the market quickly, leaving consumers to muddle through or
ignore products’ cybersecurity features, is “not sustainable,” the official
said.

In its final report, the U.S. Cybersecurity Solarium Commission recommended that
Congress create a nonprofit national cybersecurity certification and labeling
authority tasked with “establishing and managing a voluntary cybersecurity
certification and labeling program for information and communication
technologies,” including software, devices and industrial control systems.

CSC Executive Director Mark Montgomery hailed the White House decision to pursue
a labeling program but warned it will be difficult to design and stand up.

“I would hope they initially stick to OT and IoT products not software as the
propensity for software updates will make management of the certification
challenging,” Montgomery said. “The feds should be looking for a
non-governmental organization to execute this as the certification will require
an agility and persistence that will be hard for a federal agency to maintain
with all their other requirements.”

Poor or nonexistent cybersecurity safeguards in connected devices has long been
a problem for consumers and industries alike. The White House’s early plans
include creating a barcode-like label on products that consumers can scan with
their phones for updated security details. While many questions remain about how
the administration will roll out the effort, the official said the White House
is determined to move forward and has studied similar programs implemented in
Singapore and Finland.

National Institute of Standards and Technology standards will be used, the
official said, and will need to be tailored for specific products. However, NIST
doesn’t currently have technical control standards in place for IoT devices, a
fact that at least one cybersecurity expert said will complicate White House
efforts because designing them will be time consuming. (NIST has issued guidance
on IoT cybersecurity.)

> “Today when folks buy tech, they buy it for a cool feature, speed to market —
> cybersecurity is often an afterthought. Everybody realizes that it’s an idea
> whose time has come.”
> 
> senior white house official

The White House official downplayed the issue and said once the program is
launched officials can perfect it.

“What we’re trying to do is work with NIST to get the right balance of security
and not having 50 standards,” the official said. “Let’s just get this program
off the ground and set a key standard that applies across many devices … I think
perfect is going to be the enemy of the good on this.”

The White House hopes to leave next Wednesday’s meeting with commitments from
key companies to participate in the program, the administration official said.
By bringing industry in early, the White House hopes product security standards
will be enhanced “in parallel to the standard being built,” the official said.

Some critics of the plan have called it misguided, in part because the U.S.
doesn’t manufacture most of the connected products that American consumers
purchase. Additionally, others said, similar policy efforts are underway in the
U.K., EU and Singapore that the U.S. could adopt.

“NIST is doing good work on IoT,” said Trey Herr, director of the Cyber
Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council. “It would be a shame if all that
policymakers can imagine is to turn that into another top-down regulatory
scheme.”

Herr, whose team recently released a report on IoT cybersecurity, said he
doesn’t understand the administration’s focus on consumer-facing labels in a
digital world. 

“Labels are portals to data — ways to verify transparent and auditable security
behavior,” he said. “It’s not about seeing some gold star on a box at a store;
it’s about security researchers, investors, and other companies using this data
to hold vendors accountable. The policy win right now is counterparties, not
just consumers.”

Other experts were more measured.

Sarah Zatko, chief scientist at the nonprofit research organization Cyber
Independent Testing Lab, said more transparency around software safety is sorely
needed for consumers and for cybersecurity insurance providers, which currently
lack the data to assess risk effectively in the IoT space. Zatko said she
understands why the White House is focused on paper labels — even though they
are “quaint” — because consumers are used to the format and a paper label can
easily be linked to more dynamic data stored online.

“It’s vital that the paper label contain information that is comparable, not
just a gold star,” said Zatko, whose organization focuses on creating a safe
software environment for consumers. 

A pass/fail standard where companies are only incentivized to do whatever it
takes to hit the minimum requirements for a pass would be a mistake, she said.

“A consumer can’t tell the difference between ‘barely passed’ and ‘passed with
flying colors,’” Zatko said. “Part of why I like a label like Energy Star is
that it shows actual data I can compare, in an easy-to-read presentation, which
encourages healthy competition between vendors.”  


-IN THIS STORY-

Anne Neuberger, cyberthreats, hacking, Internet of Things (IoT), NIST


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