Hannover, Germany, April 24, 2017: Micron Technology and Microsoft today announced a collaboration that aims to address the major challenge of providing trusted computing models for the Internet of Things (IoT) deployments in industrial, automotive and consumer environments.
According to a press statement, the new solution utilises a hardware ‘root of trust’ integrated into Micron’s flash memory in the IoT device along with the Microsoft Azure IoT Cloud to establish a strong trusted link between that IoT device and the Cloud.
According to a press statement, at this week’s Hannover Messe 2017, Micron also announced a new IoT security technology called Micron Authenta that helps enable strong cryptographic device identity and device health management in flash memory. The concept of monitoring persistent memory storage is becoming more and more critical to understanding a device’s health. By using Microsoft’s support of Device Identity Composition Engine (DICE), an upcoming standard from the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), the combination of the Microsoft Azure IoT cloud and Micron Authenta Technology helps ensure that only trusted hardware gains access to the IoT cloud.
The key aspect of the combined solution is that the health and identity of an IoT device is verified in hardware on the device where critical code is typically stored. This enables more advanced functionality like hardware-based device attestation and provisioning, as well as allows an administrator to securely remediate the device if compromised in the field.
Micron’s Authenta Technology provides a “unique level of protection” for the lowest layers of IoT device software, starting with the boot process. The approach of utilising existing standard flash memory sockets enables system developers to harden system level security without adding additional hardware components, leading to a more affordable and robust IoT solution. A wide range of IoT devices that use standard flash memory chips can now be enhanced to improve cyber-security using this combined approach.
In addition to the hardware, Microsoft and Micron also today announced that they will offer software development kits (SDKs) that help make it easier to provide secure IoT cloud management and connectivity for new platforms and devices, as well as the ability to retrofit legacy systems.
“Microsoft and Micron are collaborating to provide customers with a unified approach to improve IoT security. This capability will speed up adoption of the latest IoT concepts by enabling customers to broaden their IoT connectivity while decreasing the investment of implementation,” said Sam George, Director of Azure IoT cloud services. “Combining these technologies will enable critical security competencies to be underpinned at a low-level in both hardware and software so that users can quickly begin to add their value to these solutions without many of the resource burdens that have been repressing innovation in the industry.”
Image Credit: Micron