White House Teams Up with Amazon and Google to Protect Devices from Cyber Threats
The White House, in collaboration with major companies like Amazon.com Inc, Google (owned by Alphabet), and Best Buy, is set to unveil a new initiative on Tuesday. This initiative aims to enable Americans to easily identify devices that have a lower susceptibility to cyberattacks.
The new certification and labeling program would raise the bar for cybersecurity in smart devices such as refrigerators, microwave ovens, televisions, air conditioning systems and fitness tracking systems, the White House said in a statement.
Retailers and manufacturers will add the “U.S. Cyber Trust Mark” logo to their devices, and the program will be implemented in 2024.
The initiative aims to ensure that “our networks and their use are more secure because it is so important to economic and national security,” said an unnamed administration official.
The Federal Communications Commission will seek public comment before implementing the marking program and register the national mark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, the White House said.
Other retailers and manufacturers participating in the program include LG Electronics U.S.A., Logitech, Cisco Systems and Samsung.
In March, the White House launched its National Cyber Strategy, which called on software makers and companies to take much more responsibility to ensure their systems can’t be hacked.
It also boosted efforts by agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Defense to disrupt the activities of hackers and ransomware groups around the world.
Last week, Microsoft and a US official said that Chinese state-linked hackers had secretly accessed email accounts at about 25 organizations, including at least two US government agencies, since May.
