Security Starter Kits make it easier to deliver secure connected devices

Arrow Electronics, Inc. has launched a suite of Security Starter Kits that provides open-source reference solutions from the edge to the cloud for IoT device companies. These kits integrate various wireless solutions and single-board computers (SBCs) with the OPTIGA TPM2.0 and OPTIGA Trust M security solutions from Infineon Technologies AG.

Arrow said the kits take the guesswork out of implementing security features in end nodes and gateway products. They are designed to make it easier for IoT device companies to add security to their end products with Root of Trust capabilities and to connect to cloud services with AWS IoT Greengrass and AWS IoT Core integrations.

Security is a huge challenge for IoT device designers and it’s only getting bigger. Transforma Insights forecasts that the number of active IoT devices will reach 24.1 billion in 2030, up from about 7.6 billion in 2019. In revenue, that translates into $1.5 trillion in 2030, up from $465 billion in 2019. About 44 percent of the spend will be for hardware, including dedicated IoT devices, modules, and gateways. Services, including connectivity, will make up the majority of the spend.

Arrow estimates that 70 percent of connected devices have little or no security. “Over the past five years, we’ve seen an exponential growth in connected devices that sense, monitor and control things from smart home/building solutions to manufacturing equipment and everything in between, yet it is conservatively estimated that 70 percent of these devices have little or no security implemented in them,” said Arrow Electronics’ vice president of IoT global solutions Aiden Mitchell, in a statement.

The suite of solutions leverage existing evaluation kits and SBCs, combined with a security solution to implement current security standards, including ETSI TS 103 645, NISTIR 8259A and ISO 27001. The low-power, wireless evaluation kits feature the Silicon Labs Giant Gecko11 and LTE Cat M solutions and the STMicroelectronics (ST) STM32WB55 BLE Nucleo Pack evaluation kits. They also supply two 96board-compliant SBCs, based on the ST STM32MP157 and NXP i.MX 8X processors, to perform gateway functions.

These solutions were created using FreeRTOS or Yocto Linux and work out of the box with AWS IoT Core and/or AWS IoT Greengrass. Users can also develop their own implementations if they prefer to use other cloud options, said Arrow.