Writes Dr Vassilia Orfanou, COO
Headline Diplomat eMagazine, LUDCI.eu
Introduction — Convenience With a Catch
When Maria Lopez installed a smart doorbell, she expected convenience — a streamlined entryway to her connected home. Instead, she found herself watching as her device alerted her to something far more sinister: it was being used as a surveillance foothold inside her own network.
Her story is neither shocking nor rare. The more gadgets we connect, the more we unwittingly invite silent intruders into our private spaces. The Internet of Things, for all its promise, is increasingly defined by a simple contradiction: the tools we depend on can also betray us.
Which raises the real question: in a world run by connected devices, who ensures we can trust any of them?
The IoT Boom: Growth Beyond Control
From household cameras to industrial sensors, billions of devices now hum quietly across the digital ecosystem. Their spread feels unstoppable. And with every new connection, attackers gain one more way into homes, hospitals, factories, or — as Maria discovered — the family foyer.
We’ve seen the consequences before. The 2016 Mirai botnet, stitched together from tens of thousands of unsecured devices, crippled major internet services and served as the industry’s rude awakening. The lesson was obvious yet widely ignored: even “low-value” devices can have high-impact consequences.
The vulnerabilities today are alarmingly routine:
- default credentials,
- unencrypted data exchanges,
- insecure update channels,
- opaque privacy practices.
As one cybersecurity analyst at ETSI, Dr. Lena Hoffman, puts it bluntly:
“Certification is no longer a regulatory checkbox — it’s the backbone of consumer confidence.”
A statement that reads less like analysis and more like an accusation — because, in truth, too many manufacturers still treat security as optional décor.
Certification: The New Trust Signal
To counter this, a quiet but influential shift is underway: smart product certification is becoming the de facto gatekeeper of digital trust.
At the center of this movement is ETSI EN 303 645, the leading cybersecurity baseline for consumer IoT products. Its requirements are straightforward — no universal passwords, secure update paths, responsible vulnerability reporting, minimized attack surfaces, encrypted communications.
In other words: basic hygiene that should never have been optional.
Testing bodies such as LABOR SA, T4C, TÜV SÜD and Intertek now certify devices against this standard, and manufacturers are beginning to treat these seals as competitive assets. During an interview with a European electronics company, product security manager Raj Patel admitted:
“We align our internal processes with EN 303 645 and the new CRA rules. Launching a device without that is irresponsible.”
Some companies are even using certification as a marketing tool. Axis Communications, for instance, proudly announced that over 150 of its devices running AXIS OS 11 or higher now conform to ETSI EN 303 645 — a detail their customers increasingly demand rather than politely overlook.
Beyond Europe, frameworks like PSA Certified help unify expectations across global markets, making it easier for manufacturers to meet overlapping regulatory demands.
Regulation: The Era of Optional Security Is Ending
If certification once felt like a nice-to-have, regulation is about to make it unavoidable.
The EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), effective since December 2024, introduces sweeping requirements for everything with digital elements — software, hardware, IoT devices, you name it. By 11 December 2027, full compliance becomes mandatory.
This includes secure design, vulnerability management, lifecycle maintenance, and technical documentation robust enough to satisfy both auditors and regulators.
Manufacturers who fail to comply won’t just face a slap on the wrist. Penalties include market exclusion and fines hefty enough to permanently erase a product line — or, for smaller companies, the company itself.
The CRA doesn’t merely encourage responsibility; it compels it. Vendors must publish coordinated vulnerability disclosures, patch actively exploited flaws, and maintain transparent security governance.
In short: the Wild West of IoT is being regulated into a fenced, monitored suburb — one certification stamp at a time.
The Hidden Trade-offs
Of course, certification is not painless.
1. Cost and Documentation Overload
Start-ups and small hardware vendors often lack the resources to navigate certification. Security audits, development reviews, and lifecycle documentation add serious overhead.
2. Software Velocity vs. Regulatory Stability
IoT devices update frequently. Regulations and certifications… do not. One firmware update can unintentionally invalidate compliance.
3. Global Standards Fragmentation
Different jurisdictions interpret “secure by default” differently. Harmonization remains a slow and politically sensitive process.
4. The Legacy Device Dilemma
Millions of older devices remain in circulation, impossible or costly to update. They’re security liabilities with long lifespans and no feasible path to compliance.
A 2025 arXiv study on industrial equipment manufacturers found that the most significant CRA readiness gaps stemmed from weak vulnerability-reporting mechanisms and immature secure development processes — hardly surprising in a sector that long saw cybersecurity as someone else’s department.
Why It Matters: Safety Isn’t Abstract
The stakes here aren’t confined to firewalls and data centers.
Smart baby monitors are hacked.
Medical wearables leak health data.
Home devices are turned into surveillance tools.
Connected infrastructure — from traffic sensors to water systems — can become attack vectors.
This isn’t “cybersecurity hype.” It’s physical, personal, everyday risk.
Certification, for all its bureaucracy, is emerging as one of the few scalable ways to reassure consumers that their devices are not Trojan horses with Bluetooth.
It is the closest thing we have to a trust contract in a world built on invisible connections.
Conclusion — Intelligence Demands Accountability
Smart products sold us a vision of effortless living: homes that anticipate, workplaces that adjust, cities that learn. But beneath the glossy promise lies an uncomfortable reality. Intelligence without accountability is just negligence with better branding.
Certification is where innovation stops being a gamble and becomes a commitment. It turns marketing claims into verifiable truth and replaces blind consumer faith with informed confidence. As regulations tighten and public scrutiny intensifies, the companies that treat certification as a core principle—not an afterthought—are the ones that will define the next era of technology.
The IoT revolution is vast, but its strength is determined by its weakest device. Certification is the discipline that holds the entire network together.
Call to Action — Turning Connection Into Protection
Policymakers now face a pivotal moment: unify standards, streamline frameworks, and create a regulatory landscape that grows as quickly as the technology it governs. Manufacturers must recognize that certification is no longer a cost of doing business; it is a brand promise—often the only one that truly matters. And the security community must continue pressing for transparency and responsible disclosure, because silence has never protected a user.
Convenience will always seduce us. It always has. But in a world built on constant connection, trust is the only safeguard that endures.
The next generation of smart devices cannot be satisfied with mere connectivity. We’ve filled our homes, workplaces, and cities with machines that promise convenience, efficiency, and intelligence—but too often they leave us exposed, silently vulnerable to the very systems we rely on. True innovation demands more than flashy features; it demands accountability. These devices must defend us with the same sophistication they use to serve us. Anything less, and “smart” becomes indistinguishable from indifference—a beautifully engineered liability in a world wired far too tightly. The future doesn’t need smarter devices. It needs ones that finally take responsibility.
