Security chip secures IoT devices connected to the cloud

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

Infineon Technologies has developed the new OPTIGA Trust M solution to help manufacturers improve the security of their devices while improving system performance. The single-chip solution securely stores unique device credentials, and enables devices to connect to the cloud up to 10× faster than software-only alternatives, said the company. Target applications include industry and building automation, smart homes, and consumer electronics.

Hardware-based trust anchors are key for connected applications and smart services, said Infineon, with zero-touch provisioning of devices to the network or cloud making gains as cloud connectivity and AI-based applications continue to grow.

The OPTIGA Trust M solution allows critical assets such as certificates and key pairs used to identify a device to be injected into the chip at Infineon’s secured factory premises. Infineon said the turnkey set-up minimizes design, integration, and deployment effort of embedded systems by providing a cryptographic toolbox, protected I² C interface, and open source code on  GitHub.

The high-end security controller is certified according to CC EAL6+ (high), and provides advanced asymmetric cryptography. It has a lifetime of 20 years, and can be securely updated in the field.

Infineon’s OPTIGA family combines hardware security controllers with software for overall security of embedded systems, including IoT end nodes, edge gateways and cloud servers. The OPTIGA Trust M solution and evaluation kits are available now.