US Senator sponsors bill against ‘weapons of mass disruption’

IoT sensors, expected to grow to a staggering 50 billion in number, raise cyber security concerns because they have been incorporated in many devices that can be controlled with a smartphone, including lights, refrigerators, cars and thermostats.

The US government has decided to take action against lax IoT security, following regular detection of vulnerabilities in IoT devices that have led to botnet attacks on major names on the tech scene.

Senator Cory Gardner, chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, is sponsoring a bill, backed by a group of fellow senators, to fix security issues in IoT devices purchased by the government, calling them “weapons of mass disruption.”

“The federal government orders billions of dollars-worth of Internet of Things devices each and every year,” says Gardner. “These are things that can be hacked into. You can try to control systems, instruments with them. You can certainly read what people are doing and maybe even eavesdrop on a conversation people are having.”

For now, the legislation is focused on IoT devices sold to the US government, for fear hackers could turn them into a national security problem. The senators hope the legislation will soon cover the private sector, as well.

“We’re facing kind of a brave new world when it comes to these things and we need to be prepared from a policy standpoint to address it. Everything around us is going to have to be looked at from a security perspective and what we are doing as country to advance innovation while make sure we are safeguarding people.”