The US Cyber Trust Mark, a voluntary labelling scheme that aims to empower consumers by labelling devices certified by the scheme, was officially launched by the White House on 7th January 2025.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which was tasked by the then-Biden administration to establish a scheme that would implement more robust cybersecurity in a growing network of connected devices, first announced the US Cyber Trust Mark in 2023. FCC worked together with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on the scheme.
The launch of the scheme follows 18 months of consultation and public input as a voluntary initiative that will allow consumers to make informed choices on what connected devices they buy. The products that are certified by the scheme, which will be connected, consumer-based devices, will be set apart by a distinctive shield logo, functioning similarly to certifications like Fairtrade or the Rainforest Alliance in confectionery.
It also reflects a wider awareness among consumers about the security risks posed by insecure connected devices. A proliferation of connected devices in consumers’ homes, from baby monitors to smart doorbells, has subsequently widened the attack surface and, in some cases, insecure devices are open to exploitation.
Consumer empowerment and greater cybersecurity awareness
“Consumers have to do a lot of independent research and be very technically savvy in order to understand what they’re buying,” explained Sharon Hagi, Chief Security Officer at Silicon Labs. “The program will definitely change that and provide consumers with the ability to make more informed purchase decisions, just like you can when you’re going to the supermarket and you want to understand what’s in a food item.”
Besides consumer empowerment, Hagi said he saw another benefit of the US Cyber Trust Mark being that it established “minimum security requirements” for connected devices, such as strong authentication and privacy controls, and raised greater awareness about cybersecurity.

Silicon Labs is a systems-on-chip (SoC) provider that provides device manufacturers and developers with their chips, which have built-in secure features. Hagi explained that their chips have built-in security features, but if customers decide not to utilise them properly, that’s their choice, and Silicon Labs’ role is confined to ensuring they provide “the best ingredients”, so to speak.
“We’re starting to see that our customers are interested in building more robust security, because we hear them asking about it,” explained Hagi. “We build chips but also have a lot of support [in] application design engineering … within that design process, we work with them from day one to make sure that security is built in. That is a very important thing that this program is encouraging as well.”
Although the US Cyber Trust Mark is a voluntary labelling scheme, it represents an overall move towards seeking to establish better standards for cybersecurity, whether that be through a voluntary scheme like the US Cyber Trust Mark, or through an enforceable piece of regulation, like the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).
“I believe it’s the right direction because in some cases you have to have regulations compelling manufacturers to act and meet minimum standards,” said Hagi, in reference to regulation. “If you leave things open to economic interpretation people will want to build products for the lowest cost and adding security increases cost.”
Silicon Labs is set to upgrade its Series 2 devices portfolio with the introduction of the Series 3, and Hagi expressed his own enthusiasm for it.
The Series 3 has been announced by the company, but not yet released. Based on the conversation with Hagi, some of the new capabilities that can be expected include expanded connected capabilities to support major protocols; a multi-core architecture; hardware-based Root of Trust authentication; a certified cryptographic engine on NIST’s Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP); and a secure memory interface.
On this latter capability, Hagi said: “One of the most prevalent vectors of attack on an SoC is where the attackers are trying to gain physical access and read memory. We have incorporated the capability of encrypting code and data so that you know when it’s being decrypted as it’s being executed.”
Final thoughts
Hagi said that Silicon Labs has been putting a lot of work into pursuing certification, because they see it as helping their customers and performing “the heavy lifting”.
“So we are working very hard with a lot of the certification programs to ensure that the certifications can inherit that foundation … so that when you are working towards certifying the device, you can leverage the Arm PSA certification,” Hagi explained, “or whatever else we are providing towards a Cyber Trust Mark label, or towards an FDA approval.
“That’s the direction we’re working with our customers on to make sure we do our best to certify our products to the highest standard so it makes it a lot easier for our [customers].”
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