The latest Cyber Resilience Act guidance makes the direction of travel clear for connected product manufacturers. Security now has to be built in from the start, maintained through the life of the product and backed by clear processes for risk management, vulnerability handling and ongoing support.
Companies can no longer treat security as a box-ticking exercise at launch. They need to show that products can stay secure after deployment, through updates, configuration changes, new integrations and extended use in the field. That raises the bar for execution and increases the importance of scalable security operations.
This is especially relevant in IoT and OT markets, where products often stay in service for years and depend on complex supply chains, third-party software and remote services. In that environment, weak processes create risk over time. Manual controls, fragmented systems and assumptions of trust become harder to defend when regulation expects continuous oversight.
Security decisions have to reflect how products work in the real world, including where they are deployed, what data they process, what systems they connect to and which threats they are likely to face. For businesses operating in connected-device markets, this points to the value of stronger device identity, trusted credentials and secure communications. Without those foundations, it becomes harder to enforce policy, manage updates securely or demonstrate that cyber risks are under control.
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