By Adam Turteltaub
adam.turteltaub@corporatecompliance.org
Back about a year ago, right after the VW Dieselgate story exploded, I wrote a piece for this blog suggesting that companies should learn from VW and take a look at their software to see if there is some cheating going on. I suggested:
Better than simply watching [the scandal] is engaging in a little paranoia. Ask yourself: do I have similar risks? Is any of the software in our products designed to meet legal and regulatory requirements? How do I know that someone at my organization hasn’t done something similar? Do we even know all the places where we have built software into our products?
It may have seemed a little dramatic of a suggestion, but now, about one year to the day from when the blog was published, there are news reports that something similar has been going on in HDTVs. The National Resources Defense Council is “…alleging that the [HDTV] televisions were designed to perform more efficiently during government testing than in ordinary use.”
It’s basically the same story, but in a different industry. And, we’ll likely see similar investigations, lawsuits and headlines.
Bottom line is that once again we’re seeing that the software embedded in devices can be a risk area. As a result, it’s prudent for compliance teams and management to start recognizing the risk, and start taking a hard look at their software.
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