This is a project of the non-profit group Consumer Reports: each device will have its own review with rating based on security systems
Feedback on the cybersecurity of products. This is the new project Consumer Reports, an influential non-profit group in the United States that conducts extensive reviews of cars, appliances and various devices. Cybersecurity will be one of the yardsticks in a product's reviews.
The Consumer Reports group, which in its reviews releases a range of ratings of various products useful to users in the purchase phase, said it has recently partnered with several companies specializing in cybersecurity solutions. The purpose was to test the devices by analyzing the protections used to defend against the different types of malware currently present on the Net. "The idea was born - said the director of the organization Maria Rerecich - especially to warn consumers in the purchase of so-called devices Internet of Things".
Security standards
Obviously, the tests are not only about security but also privacy. Among the items tested with most interest were routers and webcams. According to Consumer Reports since there has been no valid interest from manufacturers in decreasing hacker attacks on IoT objects it is the case that consumer advocacy organizations are the ones clamoring for it. "If cybersecurity becomes a discriminator," says Rerecich, "for whether or not to buy a product, manufacturers will also upgrade. On the U.S. organization's website, you can monitor the first draft of the security standards that an electronic product must provide to the consumer. The three main topics involve the protections used by the software, the amount of information collected about the user and whether the data disappears when the user deletes his or her account.