UK’s new ‘world first’ laws crack down on smart cyber attacks
London, April 29
All Internet-connected smart devices will be required to meet minimum security standards under what the UK government has dubbed as “world first” laws, effective from Monday to protect consumers and businesses from hacking and cyber-attacks.
Under the new regime, manufacturers will be banned from having weak, easily guessable default passwords like “admin” or “12345”.
An investigation conducted by a consumer group found that a UK home filled with smart devices could be exposed to more than 12,000 hacking attacks from across the world in a single week, with a total of 2,684 attempts to guess weak default passwords on just five devices.
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