Cybersecurity needs secure software: How policymakers can hold software vendors accountable - and why they should

Cybersecurity incidents cause harm - for example, when adversarial states paralyse critical infrastructure or steal sensitive data. Many such incidents are only possible because many software products have known vulnerabilities. Software vendors could fix these, but they have little incentive to invest in the security of their products. To date, cybersecurity policy and protective measures have primarily addressed the symptoms of insecure software, rather than the root cause, namely software insecurity itself. This calls for regulation, specifically in the areas of product safety law, product liability regulations, and cybersecurity requirements for providers of software services. The European Union (EU) has already adopted initial rules, but regulatory gaps remain, and it is unclear whether member states will strictly enforce them. The German government should therefore now advocate for comprehensive European product liability regulations for software, and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) should impose fines on companies that violate existing rules.