Cybersecurity Policy Report, U.S., Quad Allies to Collaborate on IoT Cybersecurity Labeling, (Jul 29, 2024)

By Tom Leithauser

The U.S. and its Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) partners—Australia, India, and Japan—today said they were seeking “mutual recognition” of each nation’s “labeling schemes for cybersecurity of Internet of Things (IoT) products.”

That would mean that IoT products certified under the rules of Australia, India, or Japan would be eligible to display the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, a logo developed by the FCC to identify products that meet cybersecurity standards established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The FCC recently set an Aug. 19 deadline for comments on various implementation details for the program (CPR, July 18). The program is expected to be operational by year-end.

The collaboration on IoT security labeling was announced following a meeting of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of the Quad allies in Tokyo. They also discussed “the protection of critical infrastructure including secure commercial undersea cables from trusted vendors” and committed to “promoting and strengthening a culture where software security is by design and default.”

The nations announced the formation of a Quad “cyber ambassadors” group to “discuss capacity building projects and responsible State behavior in cyberspace.”

They pledged to work together to improve connectivity in the Asia-Pacific “through the development of resilient infrastructure ... under the Quad Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience, including the establishment of the Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre in Australia and training of over 1,000 telecom officials and executives in the region under the United States CABLES program.”

“We recognize the transformative power of critical and emerging technologies to support sustainable development in the Indo-Pacific and deliver economic and social benefits,” they said.

“We continue to advance the development of a trusted, secure and robust telecommunications network, and promote supplier diversification, Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN) and joint projects such as the Open RAN deployment in Palau, where Quad countries have collectively secured extensive investments in Open RAN trials, core network replacement, and capacity building,” they added.

“The Quad is a partnership that is evolving and delivering outcomes, and continues to present regional countries and the international community with solutions and options to meet the challenges of the day. The Quad is committed to steadily implementing its plans to provide tangible benefits to other countries, including those cooperation items presented here today,” they said.

They announced that India would host the next Quad “leaders’ summit” later this year and that the United States would host the next Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in 2025.

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