New law to help protect tech from hackers

The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill (PSTI), introduced to Parliament today, will allow the UK government to ban universal default passwords, force firms to be transparent to customers about what they are doing to fix security flaws in connectable products, and create a better public reporting system for vulnerabilities found in those products.

This could pave the way for better security and more protection for consumers and organisations alike. We will report on its progress.


In related news, Sky this week revealed that six million Sky routers represented a serious security risk, since they were delivered with an easily-guessable default admin password. The problem has been fixed for new routers, but some may still be affected.

Interestingly, we use a Sky router as one source of internet connectivity, but the admin password was changed before it was connected, and this is in line with Cyber Essentials requirements.