The Federal Trade Commission hopes the promise of a $25,000 cash prize will incentivize inventors to develop a solution suitable for the privacy and security needs created by the array of IoT gadgets and products people are collecting, items that if not protected leave countless new entranceways for hackers.
The FTC's IoT Home Inspector Challenge contest will award $25,000 for the best technical solution to protect consumers from security breaches in IoT device software. There will also be up to $3,000 available for up to three honorable mention winners.
"An ideal tool might be a physical device that the consumer can add to his or her home network that would check and install updates for other IoT devices on that home network, or it might be an app or cloud-based service, or a dashboard or other user interface," the agency said in a statement.
Contest submissions will be accepted between March 1 and May 22, and winners, to be judged by a panel of five experts, will be announced in late July.
Read more: https://www.ftc.gov/iot-home-inspector-challenge