The EU Cyber Resilience Act: What it Means for SMEs and the Open Web

We’re excited to let you know about the first episode of our new podcast series, Pit-Stop Talks. The episode is called “Privacy Pole Position” and it’s LIVE.

Our latest podcast episode, now available, delves into the EU’s proposed Cyber Resilience Act and its broader implications, particularly for startups, small businesses, and the open source community. Featuring insights from Ronni K. Gothard Christiansen, founder of AesirX, we explore how this legislation aims to enhance cybersecurity across Europe but also raises concerns about its potential impact on open source developers and the requirement for disclosing unpatched vulnerabilities. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the act’s nuances and its possible effects on the digital landscape.

The EU Cyber Resilience Act aims to enhance cybersecurity for digital products in the EU market. It applies broadly to hardware and software, emphasizing obligations for manufacturers, importers, and distributors to ensure product security. Key points include cyber risk management requirements, a conformity assessment regime, and incident reporting obligations. Noncompliance can lead to significant fines.

While it’s designed to enhance cybersecurity, has sparked debate, especially among open source developers. There’s concern that its wide view of what counts as commercial work might unfairly target open source developers who get paid in any form. Additionally, the requirement to report security gaps before they’re fixed could accidentally make cyber threats worse. These issues suggest the Act needs revising to ensure it supports open source work without compromising security.