The EU's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is a step in the right direction—on paper at least for the time being. For the first time, all connected devices in Europe will be held to common cybersecurity standards, with a familiar CE mark signaling compliance. I think we all agree that this is a good idea and a worthwhile pursuit? After all, securing devices we carry around or use at home is crucial, and nobody would argue against better protection from cyber threats.
But such regulations always look cleaner in theory than in practice. It’s easy to mandate security updates and vulnerability reporting, but enforcing it across thousands of products from countless manufacturers? That’s a much bigger ask. Many companies will struggle to adapt, especially with just a three-year transition period. For smaller businesses, this could mean serious operational headaches, not to mention the complexity of reporting cyber incidents to a central authority.
One argument surely will be that such regulation curbs innovation but the EUs current "groove" seems not to curb it, but to put it into a "risk awareness" framework for consumers. Its not innovation at all cost, but a . Since the market is big and important enough, it might become just sensible to include CRA in your products design.
What would in my opinion be unfortunate, if not compliant products are banned from the EU-market. That kind of government sanctioned technology kill-list - like it is done with the punishment for ice-cars - is not to my liking.
But the EUs thrives guiding or regulating "cyber-things" has sofar impressed me. The first draft us usually not spot on but the direction is smart and sensible.
