Kyrio, the for-profit unit of CableLabs, has teamed with Microchip to develop embedded device security for the Internet of Things (IoT) sector.
Kyrio said it is the first certificate authority and Microchip Security Design Partner as part of an effort aimed at driving scale into IoT device security.
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“The mission of this partnership is to embed IoT devices with digital certificates in secure hardware in a way that integrates well with hardware manufacturing process flows,” Ron Ih, director of business development at Kyrio, explained in this blog post. “This strategy will make it easy for IoT device manufacturers to enable enterprise-grade security without needing to be security experts.”
He noted that providing high security for networked devices historically requires complex back-end security software, security specialists, and processes “that did not fit well with hardware manufacturing flows,” and represents a situation that’s not sustainable with an IoT world that is seeing the number of connected devices explode.
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“IoT devices – from lightbulbs to cars – need security at the core, not as an afterthought,” Ih added. “By providing a strong managed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that fits within the existing design flow and supply chain familiar to device manufacturers, we are moving closer to the standardization the IoT industry requires to grow securely,” Ih explained.
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Microchip, he said, already works with customers in several markets, including consumer, automotive, communications and industrial control.
Though Kyrio is the first certificate authority for Microchip’s Design Partner Program, other companies involved with it include cloud providers such as Google, Afero and Amazon Web Services, CycloneCrypto (a stack provider), and Cerberus, a design house based in the U.K.
