‘They’re all about pushing the products and shiny things rather than fundamental security’:Mapping socio-technical challenges in securing the smart home

Jiahong Chen,Lachlan Urquhart

doi:10.1080/13600834.2021.1957193

Jiahong Chen, Lachlan Urquhart

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/13600834.2021.1957193

Copy DOI

Abstract

ABSTRACT Insecure connected devices can cause serious threats not just to smart home-owners, but also the underlying infrastructural network. There has been increasing academic and regulatory interest in addressing cybersecurity risks from both the standpoint of IoT vendors and that of end-users. In addition to the current data protection and network security legal frameworks, for example, the UK government has initiated the ‘Secure by Design’ campaign. While there has been work on how organisations and individuals manage their own cybersecurity risks, it remains unclear to what extent IoT vendors are supporting end-users to perform day-to-day management of such risks, and what is stopping the vendors from improving such support. We interviewed 13 experts in the field of IoT and identified three main categories of barriers to making IoT products useably secure: technical, legal and organisational. In this paper we further discuss the policymaking implications of these findings and make some recommendations.

Highlights

The security of smart home products has been an increasing concern for consumers and policymakers alike
As the number of smart devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) is growing steadily, more cybersecurity incidents associated with smart devices are being reported
In theory vendors of IoT products would have incentives to ensure their products are safe to use ‘out of the box’ and provide help for consumers to manage their smart home security across the life cycle of the technologies. This is not taking place at a satisfactory level, and the resulting legislative shifts are changing the regulatory landscape in the UK and EU

Summary

Introduction

The security of smart home products has been an increasing concern for consumers and policymakers alike. In theory vendors of IoT products would have incentives to ensure their products are safe to use ‘out of the box’ and provide help for consumers to manage their smart home security across the life cycle of the technologies. In reality, this is not taking place at a satisfactory level, and the resulting legislative shifts are changing the regulatory landscape in the UK and EU. We will first provide some background information about the regulatory landscape in this field as well as an explanation as to why this inquiry is important at this time, as governance of smart

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion