People Really Want Smart Cars to Include Cybersecurity Labels, Survey Finds

New market research uncovered something that everyone knows intrinsically: customers want cybersecurity protection embedded in IoT devices, especially smart cars, and they want it labeled as such.

The sharp proliferation of IoT devices in the past few years shows that people saw their added value, even when those devices were made for niche markets and use cases. We now see more and more devices arrive with default Internet connectivity, making them part of the IoT ecosystem, even when their core functionality doesn’t require it.

Unfortunately, one reason we see so many IoT devices is that manufacturers sometimes sacrifice security for speed to market. Also, many smart devices arrive on shelves with no plans for later support, making them highly vulnerable to attacks.

Governments from all over the world are just now trying to regulate the IoT industry. Australia, the UK, and the European Union have tried to implement labeling systems for new IoT devices, and some of these programs are still being developed.

The US now joins the effort, with the White House starting an initiative to label IoT devices from 2023, allowing users to immediately gauge the safety of the hardware they’re about to add to their smart home.

In response to this new government initiative, BlackBerry surveyed 1,088 US consumers to determine what people value when it comes to IoT security.

“More than half (56 percent) of respondents say they’re worried about the security of their smart home devices — such as thermostats, doorbells, and refrigerators — being hacked,” the survey found. “Two in three (68 percent) respondents say security concerns prevent them from connecting to Internet-enabled devices.”

“Some of the most popular connected devices used by respondents include smart speakers (39 percent), doorbells (23 percent), and robotic vacuums (17 percent). Respondents think smart speakers (21 percent) are the safest from a cybersecurity standpoint, followed by doorbells (13 percent), and thermostats (10 percent),” the survey also found.

Interestingly, 74 percent of respondents said the labeling system should also extend to smart cars. For example, Bitdefender’s telemetry revealed that hackers are already looking for vulnerabilities and exploits in smart cars connected to home networks.