RED Cybersecurity Standards: Effective August 1 2025

What is RED?

The Radio Equipment Directive (RED) 2014/53/EU is a European Union law regulating radio equipment in the EU market. The goal is to ensure efficient use of the radio spectrum, minimising interference between devices, while upholding safety and security requirements.

RED applies to electrical and electronic devices that emit and receive radio waves below 3000 GHz. This includes mobile phones, tablets, smart watches, smart TVs, Bluetooth devices, and Wi-Fi infrastructure.

A specific section of RED, focusing on cybersecurity requirements, comes into force on August 1, 2025.

What are the new requirements?

From August 1, internet-connected radio equipment on the EU market must meet the following standards:

 – Article 3.3 (d): radio equipment does not harm the network or its functioning nor misuse network resources, thereby causing an unacceptable degradation of service.

 – Article 3.3 (e): radio equipment incorporates safeguards to ensure that the personal data and privacy of the user and of the subscriber are protected.

 – Article 3.3 (f): radio equipment supports certain features ensuring protection from fraud.

In practical terms, this means that, among other things, devices must (as applicable):

 – Not use excessive network resources (may require data rate throttling during updates)

 – Be safeguarded sufficiently so they won’t be hijacked and used for network attacks

 – Encrypt any private user data they transmit

 – Enforce secure access controls (passwords, etc) and secure on-device storage

 – Be transparent about what data is collected and only collect what’s strictly necessary

 – Run integrity checks to ensure that the device hasn’t been tampered with

 – Include unique certificates or identifiers to make it difficult to impersonate the device

What does this mean for my business?

These new standards mean that you can be confident that devices purchased in the EU market from August 2025 are built with your security in mind. Syntec’s preferred product lines, including Unitech and Zebra devices, are certified to both RED and the UK’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022. Manufacturer declarations of conformity are available upon request.

If you have any questions about the cybersecurity or other regulatory compliance of our devices, contact us for further information.