Louisville, Ky. – May 11, 2020 – Today, GE Appliances (GEA), a Haier company, was recognized by UL, a leading global safety science company, for achieving a gold level IoT Security Rating. This rating, as evaluated by UL, demonstrates security capabilities for GE Appliances’ connected products, GE Appliances Powered by SmartHQ, across brands, including GE™, GE Profile™, Café™, Monogram™ and Haier™

GE Appliances Powered by SmartHQ include cooking products, microwaves, dishwashers, washers, dryers, refrigeration products, air conditioners, water heaters and water softeners, enable owners to remotely monitor, control, receive product alerts and notifications, and interact with their appliances with voice. 

“At GE Appliances, we are committed to ensuring the security of our connected appliances and protecting consumers’ data. We incorporate advanced security principles into our product development process, conduct security vulnerability testing and encourage security researchers to provide us with feedback,” said Shawn Stover, executive director, SmartHome Solutions, GE Appliances. “We’re extremely pleased to have achieved the gold level of UL’s IoT Security Rating, and we believe the added third-party assurance helps ensure our customer’s peace of mind against security threats.”

The IoT Security Rating is a security verification and labeling solution for consumer IoT products. UL’s solution aims to help manufacturers and developers demonstrate the security due diligence of their products by leveraging proven security best practices and rating the security posture of IoT products. This helps to improve the transparency of security with consumers and to assist them in making conscious and informed purchasing decisions.

“As part of UL’s decades of cybersecurity experience and rapidly growing IoT cybersecurity practice, we are proud to recognize GE Appliances as the first gold level IoT Security Rating for a household appliance brand,” said Isabelle Noblanc, global vice president and general manager of UL’s Identity Management and Security division. “This achievement helps verify the security due diligence GE Appliances has built into their connected products, helps demonstrate their cybersecurity posture to retailers and regulators and empowers consumers to make purchase decisions based on the security built into GE Appliances Powered by SmartHQ.” 

UL’s IoT Security Rating, which is established following verification of a product according to the UL MCV 1376 security framework methodology, supports manufacturers by helping to demonstrate meeting the threshold of reasonable security features as required in U.S. IoT security regulations and recommended in global IoT security guidelines. As part of UL’s IoT Security Rating, GE Appliances Powered by SmartHQ were assessed to gold level according to their implementation of vital baseline security capabilities, such as no default passwords, industry privacy best practices, access controls, stored and transmitted data security and mobile app security maintenance, among others.

The IoT Security Rating categorizes products according to an ascending five-level scale: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Verified products receive a differentiated UL Verified Mark security label–specifying the achieved security level–and are evaluated on an ongoing basis by UL. GE Appliances’ unique UL Verified Mark code can be accessed on the UL Verify website. GE Appliances will utilize the UL Verified Mark on their products, packaging, marketing and retail environments to demonstrate their security posture to customers. 

About GE Appliances
GE Appliances, a Haier company, creates “good things, for life” through our passion for great appliances and the happiness they can bring to every household. With the Monogram®, CAFÉ™, GE Profile™, GE®, Haier and Hotpoint brands, people have more choices for making their kitchens and homes amazing each day. Our products include refrigerators, freezers, cooking products, dishwashers, washers, dryers, air conditioners and water filtration systems. For more information, visit www.geappliances.com/our-company.

About SmartHQ Management

SmartHQ is an end-to-end smart solution that solves real-life issues that owners and partners face throughout the entire product lifecycle, including SmartHQ Distribution, SmartHQ Management, SmartHQ Home, and SmartHQ Service. With more than 60 years of experience dedicated to the builder channel, GE Appliances is the only manufacturer to unify smart technology, making us the easiest to do business with, manage, use and service. As the leader in smart technology, GE Appliances offers more than 450 connected appliances across brands, including GE Profile which leads in innovation by fully integrating with our consumers to provide better, faster results. To learn more, visit www.smarthqpro.com or download the SmartHQ app.