by Angela Guess

According to a recent press release, “The Online Trust Alliance (OTA), the non-profit with the mission to enhance online trust, today announced that every vulnerability or privacy issue reported for consumer connected home and wearable technology products since November 2015 could have been easily avoided. Specifically, OTA found had device manufacturers and developers implemented the security and privacy principles outlined in the OTA IoT Trust Framework, the recently reported susceptibilities would have never occurred. ‘In this rush to bring connected devices to market, security and privacy is often being overlooked,’ said Craig Spiezle, Executive Director and President of the Online Trust Alliance. ‘If businesses do not make a systemic change we risk seeing the weaponization of these devices and an erosion of consumer confidence impacting the IoT industry on a whole due to their security and privacy shortcomings’.”

The release continues, “The OTA Trust IoT Framework is the first global, multi-stakeholder effort to address IoT risks comprehensively. It includes a baseline of 31 measurable principles which device manufacturers, developers and policy makers should follow to help maximize the security of and privacy of the devices and data collected for smart homes and wearable technologies. OTA began developing the framework in February 2015, and released it formally in March 2016. This release reflected feedback from nearly 100 organizations including ADT, American Greetings, Device Authority, Infoblox, Malwarebytes, Microsoft, the National Association of Realtors, Symantec, consumer and privacy advocates, international testing organizations, academic institutions, and U.S. governmental and law enforcement agencies.”

Read more at OTAlliance.org.

Photo credit: OTA