Marketplace Morning Report's new Skin in the Game series explores what we can learn about

money and careers from the $300 billion video game industry. Plus, here how an Oakland-based

program helps young people get the skills they need to break into this booming industry.

Listen to Skin in the Game and more from the Marketplace Morning Report wherever you get your

podcasts. How to make connected devices not just smart, but safe. From American public media,

this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Lalit Ramali.

The Biden administration has begun work on a cyber security certification program for online

devices and appliances vulnerable to hacks or other invasive cyber attacks. Think of this US

cyber trust mark like a nutrition label that tells you if your smart speakers, baby monitors,

or fitness trackers are secure. Getting this out there and getting it right is really important,

says Stacey Higginbatham, founder and editor of the Internet of Things newsletter.

There are two reasons we need this. One is more and more products that consumers buy are going

to be connected to the Internet. We need to make sure that these things are secure. Even if you

don't buy into the Amazon ecosystem or Google Home or any of that, you're still getting connected

products in your life whether you like it or not. Reason number two is security is not just important

for preventing giant botnets from taking out major websites. It's also important for you as a

consumer because you don't want somebody to hack your network. A minor issue might be like if

someone tries to get into your thermostat and holds it attack as part of a ransomware attack,

it probably wouldn't be around you as an individual, but someone could go after all of the nest

thermostats out there and say, hey, we're taking these down unless everybody pays us money and

you won't be able to control your temperature in your home. That would be terrible. Another issue

is these insecure products can let people eavesdrop in on microphones on your device or possibly

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