Writing for Semiconductor Engineering, Ann Steffora Mutschler observes that a shift is currently underway in the automotive industry as more connected vehicles hit the road each year.“[Connectivity adds] many of the features that consumers now expect in mobile devices as well as some new ones that ultimately will lead to autonomous vehicles,” she explained.
Search Results for: IoT
Shifting gears for the IoT
Writing for Semiconductor Engineering, Ann Steffora Mutschler observes that a shift is currently underway in the automotive industry as more connected vehicles hit the road each year.
“[Connectivity adds] many of the features that consumers now expect in mobile devices as well as some new ones that ultimately will lead to autonomous vehicles,” she explained.
“But along with those changes are some nagging questions about just how safe [this] technology will be for consumers and others around them, and whether the whole system can be secured.”
As Mutschler acknowledges, such questions have been asked ever since the introduction of infotainment systems in cars.
“[However], the volume is increasing as more critical systems are connected to in-car networks and as more wireless features are added into vehicles,” she noted. “In effect, every new car is now an IoT device, and like every connected device, there are benefits and risks. But in the case of a two-ton object moving at high speed down a crowded highway, the risks are much more serious.”
According to Simon Blake-Wilson, VP of products and marketing for Rambus’ Cryptography Research Division, the industry is currently struggling with the concept of designing secure vehicles.
“We struggle in the sense that if you think about the security you apply to a mobile phone, it’s not like there is a magic bullet solution for mobile phone security. Similarly, everything about this from an [automotive] perspective must take into account many different security aspects,” Blake-Wilson told Semiconductor Engineering. “[Moreover], we struggle with the idea of whole-vehicle security just in the sense that people often come away expecting a magic bullet that’s going to solve the problem. We see cars being like other Internet connected objects, except much worse.”
As Mutschler points out, silicon foundries are now placing encryption algorithms into silicon with various technologies, including Rambus CryptoManager. Essentially, the CryptoManager platform acts as a foundational component capable of powering multiple security solutions. According to Blake-Wilson, a root of trust is the goal with any hardware-based security technology.
“For example, when you provision over-the-air updates, typically you sign those updates using a cryptographic mechanism called a digital signature scheme, with a private key and a public key. You sign the update with the private key, and the person that checks the signature has to have the right public key to verify it,” he continued. “A hardware root of trust manages the keys that you need to have, securing then in the right place to power the different security solutions. Once the key is in the right place, you go to the next step and use the key to check the signature. In the same way, you could use a hardware root of trust to provision keys and secure communications across the vehicle CAN [controller area network] bus as well.”
Including a root of trust in automotive semiconductors, says Blake-Wilson, will mark a critical security milestone for the industry.
“There will be a number of different applications or services that [require] security [measures]. Putting the right foundational capabilities into the chips that can be used by a variety of different applications will be key,” he concluded.
Interested in learning more about the Rambus CryptoManager platform? You can check out the CryptoManager product page here.
Analysts bullish on IoT security
ABI Research analysts say the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) will be the next big market for cyber security. “While it remains a fragmented market that has yet to consolidate, the ecosystem is expanding with vendors finding their way into three groups,” the researchers wrote in a recent blog post.
Analysts bullish on IoT security
ABI Research analysts say the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) will be the next big market for cyber security.
“While it remains a fragmented market that has yet to consolidate, the ecosystem is expanding with vendors finding their way into three groups,” the researchers wrote in a recent blog post.
“[These include] hardware (chipset/SoC/microcontroller), firmware/software (embedded OS/RTOS/hypervisor), and applications (platform/cloud/service/analytics) across a wide range of verticals, including automotive, smart home, healthcare, and energy.”
According to Michela Menting, Research Director at ABI Research, there is increasing interest – and requirements – for improved levels of security to be designed into products, devices, and networks to protect data, combat fraud, and prevent criminal hacking.
“Promising opportunities, and undeniably challenges, will center on securing assets, protecting data, and ensuring privacy,” she explained.
As Menting points out, standardization and guideline developments are still at a relatively early stage. Indeed, numerous groups, including the Cloud Security Alliance, the Trusted Computing Group, the OWASP IoT Project, the IEE, GSMA, NFC Forum, ISO, GlobalPlatform, and IoT Security Foundation, among others, are working on different aspects of security standards, from hardware designs to network connectivity.
“When mapping out these new standards, it is important to keep in mind numerous considerations, such as small footprints, lightweight agents, low energy consumption, mobile assets, and permeable networks,” Menting concluded.
Despite the above-mentioned challenges, the rapidly evolving IoT security market is expected to increase from $6.89 billion in 2015 to $28.90 billion by 2020. To be sure, IoT security has understandably become a tangible concern for many.
“Prior to the emergence of IoT, the adverse effect of threats was limited to theft of money and intellectual properties,” Research and Markets analysts observed in a recent report. “Now, the effect can lead to loss of human life, hacking of critical infrastructures like electricity and nuclear power grids, organizational productivity, and even national intelligence.”
Similar to ABI’s Menting, the Research and Markets analysts cited mandatory government regulations as a significant factor contributing to an increased interest in IoT security.
“This has acted as a major driving force for the IoT security market,” the analysts concluded.
Interested in learning more about securing the IoT? You can check out our article archive on the subject here.
IoT security market to exceed $28 billion by 2020
A new report published by Research and Markets projects that the Internet of Things (IoT) security market will increase from $6.89 billion in 2015 to $28.90 billion by 2020. “With the technological advancement and increasing application of networking, the concern for security has become a global phenomenon and its intensity is increasing every day,” the researchers explained in a report summary.
IoT security market to exceed $28 billion by 2020
A new report published by Research and Markets projects that the Internet of Things (IoT) security market will increase from $6.89 billion in 2015 to $28.90 billion by 2020.
“With the technological advancement and increasing application of networking, the concern for security has become a global phenomenon and its intensity is increasing every day,” the researchers explained in a report summary.
“Prior to the emergence of IoT, the adverse effect of threats was limited to theft of money and intellectual properties. Now, the effect can lead to loss of human life, hacking of critical infrastructures like electricity and nuclear power grids, organizational productivity, and even national intelligence.”
The researchers also noted that mandatory government regulations pertaining to data protection has augmented investment in IoT security.
“This has acted as a major driving force for the IoT security market,” the report summary continued. “Additionally, the growth of social media and diverse reach of IoT has contributed towards the growth of market. However, the lack of awareness regarding security and the complexity of security infrastructure are holding the growth of the IoT security market.”
As we’ve previously discussed on Rambus Press, the current security paradigm associated with the mobile and PC world is undeniably flawed. Indeed, serious or even critical vulnerabilities disclosed on an almost daily basis are patched with hurriedly coded software and firmware updates.
Simon Blake-Wilson, a VP at Rambus’ Cryptography Research Division, emphasizes that while a ‘good enough’ approach may have been tolerated for smartphones and tablets, the industry cannot afford to relegate security to a tertiary concern for an IoT that may very well ultimately affect every aspect of our daily lives.
“A new paradigm, designed from the ground up to provide secure foundations for connected devices, is clearly long overdue,” he concluded. “Devices need to be secured throughout their lifecycle from chip manufacture, to day-to-day deployment, to decommissioning.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, Ted Harrington, a partner at Independent Security Evaluators and organizer of the annual DEFCON hacker conference, recently said he was not at all optimistic about a secure IoT, at least in the short-term. As Harrington tells Inverse, IoT security “will get worse, potentially a lot worse, before it gets better.”
According to Harrington, new technology typically follows three predictable steps: Innovation, (similar) products that hit the marketplace without proper security, and pressure from the community to tighten up security.
“We are at the very, very, very front edge of that second phase,” Harrington opined. “We have a long way to go before we get to the third phase.”
To be sure, he says, the current trust model for the IoT is broken.
“Meaning, connected devices inherently trust each other, when in fact they should inherently distrust each other,” he added. “Don’t get lost in the hype with how exciting IoT is without balancing it with the risk that comes along with IoT.”
