In summer 2023, the Biden administration announced its plan to certify devices with a logo indicating powerful cybersecurity. Now, as Biden navigates his last couple weeks in office, the White House has launched the US Cyber Trust Mark. The green shield logo will adorn any product which passes accreditation tests established by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The program will open to companies “soon,” allowing them to submit products to an accredited lab for compliance testing. “The US Cyber Trust Mark embodies public-private collaboration,” the White House stated in a release. “It connects companies, consumers, and the US government by incentivizing companies to build products securely against established security standards and gives consumers an added measure of assurance — through the label — that their smart device is cybersafe.” Some companies, like Best Buy and Amazon, plan to showcase labeled products for consumer’s easy discovery.
Steps to get the program up and running have continued over the last year and a half. In March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the program in a bipartisan, unanimous vote. Last month, the Commission issued 11 companies with conditional approval to act as Cybersecurity Label Administrators.
The White House’s original announcement included plans to also create a QR code linking to a database of the products — its unclear if this aspect will move forward. The QR code would allow customers to check if the product was up-to-date with its cybersecurity checks.