U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, has released a letter asking three federal agencies for information on the tools available that prevent cyber criminals from compromising consumer products, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices. “The weak security of many of the new connected consumer devices provides an attractive target for attackers, leveraging the bandwidth and processing power of millions of devices, many of them with few privacy or security measures, to swamp internet sites and servers with an overwhelming volume of traffic,” Sen. Warner says.

— Prohibition of harmful devices: “Under the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Open Internet rules, ISPs cannot prohibit the attachment of “non-harmful devices” to their networks. It seems entirely reasonable to conclude under the present circumstances, however, that devices with certain insecure attributes could be deemed harmful to the “network” – whether the ISP’s own network or the networks to which it is connected. While remaining vigilant to ensure that such prohibitions do not serve as a pretext for anticompetitive or exclusionary behavior, I would encourage regulators to provide greater clarity to internet service providers in this area.”

— “Mirai’s efficacy depends, in large part, on the unacceptably low level of security… Juniper Research has projected that by the end of 2020, the number of IoT devices will grow from 13.4 to 38.5 billion – yet there is no requirement that devices incorporate even minimal levels of security. The internet’s open architecture has been a catalyst for its growth ... The lack of gating functions, however, has potentially created a systemic risk to the resiliency of the internet.”