Avnet offers free starter kits to build secure IoT devices

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

With security becoming the biggest challenge for IoT development, Avnet  is giving away 20,000 free Azure Sphere starter kits  while supplies last. Developed by Avnet, the Avnet Azure Sphere MT3620  Starter Kit for secure IoT endpoint devices leverages the Avnet-developed Azure Sphere module that is based on Microsoft’s secure Azure Sphere operating system (OS) and Azure Sphere Security Service hosted on a MediaTek MT3620 secure MCU.

By combining hardware, software, and cloud in one secure solution, Microsoft said that Azure Sphere secures the seven critical properties of an IoT device : hardware root of trust, defense in depth, small trusted computing base, dynamic compartments, certificate-based authentication, failure reporting, and renewable security. This reduces the risk of an end device being vulnerable to attack.

Avnet resources available to developers include webinars, lectures, and road tests. Avnet is also hosting two different design contests — Sensing the World and Secure Everything Challenge — based on the Azure Sphere starter kit. Developers can win a range of prizes totaling more than $70,000.

The kits will be offered through Avnet’s Hackster.io  and element14  communities with kits and contest submissions open until Sept. 30, 2019. Contest rules and design resources can be found at Secure Everything .