Trump Signs IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act Into Law

On Dec. 4, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law the bipartisan-backed Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020. By its terms, the new law applies solely to federal government agencies, but its downstream consequences are likely to reach further, impacting devices procured by the federal government and-likely, eventually-consumer devices.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are in widespread use, most visibly by consumers of new smart home devices. The new law defines IoT devices as those devices that:

1. Interact with the physical world
2. Have a network interface for transmitting or receiving information via the internet
3. Are not conventional information technology devices such as smartphones or laptops and cannot function as a component of another device such as a processor