The National Telecommunications & Information Administration has scheduled its first multistakeholder meeting on Internet of Things (IoT) security upgrades and patches for Oct. 19.
NTIA, which has held similar meetings on various Internet-related topics in Washington, is going on the road. It will hold the meeting in Austin, Tex., to coincide with a Consumer Technology Association Technology and Standards Forum.
NTIA published the meeting announcement in the Federal Register Monday (Sept. 19).
In March 2015, NTIA sought comment on identifying cybersecurity issues related to IoT and the rise of an interconnected economy. Separately, NTIA sought comment on potential roles for government in fostering IoT.
The upshot of those were that NTIA decided last month that its next multistakeholder process should focus on IoT cybersecurity, focus on patches and upgrades that, unaddressed, could leave systems and users vulnerable to attack.
"The immediate goal of this process will be to develop a broad, shared definition or set of definitions around security upgradability for consumer IoT, as well as strategies for communicating the security features of IoT devices to consumers."
NTIA has already overseen multistakeholder processes for voluntary drone privacy, mobile app privacy and facial recognition privacy as part of the Obama Administration's efforts to enforce its Privacy Bill of Rights via voluntary best practices.
