Orgalime Position Paper on Strengthening Trust and Transparency in IoT

The European Engineering Industries which Orgalime represents as a whole attach considerable importance to achieving a secure cyberspace. Technology is becoming increasingly reliant on digital technologies, and Orgalime's members are increasingly being called upon to provide solutions incorporating these systems and technologies. Given the wide coverage of Orgalime's industry, it is inevitable that a sectoral approach will need to be considered. Indeed, a one-size-fits-all approach is too simplistic and will not be appropriate. A sector, subsector, product or system focused approach will often be necessary in order to satisfy the rightful expectations of customers and market needs. Accepting this as a starting point will therefore facilitate the development of rational and pragmatic approaches in an area where technology moves fast.

With this in mind, Orgalime believes that industry will put more efforts into creating and transferring security standards on product and system level in multiple sectors. The promotion and sharing of best practices will help to move into this direction. Orgalime would welcome that the Commission support such industry-led initiatives - through test-beds for example. In addition, efforts should be made to improve transparency about the capabilities and specifications of IoT devices in terms of cybersecurity. Based upon these efforts and, if considered necessary, minimum legal requirements might be discussed based on the New Legislative Framework and an appropriate conformity assessment system developed in this context.

Orgalime’s members are committed to provide suggestions through best practice examples, benchmarking, expertise and through industry-driven standardisation.

Orgalime believes that the complex area of cybersecurity is and will remain a core issue which will need to be discussed throughout the wider engineering and B2B community, by regulators, manufacturers, standardisation bodies and users.