The problem being addressed
The Internet of Things promises to bring everything from microwaves to pacemakers and shipping fleets online, leverage enormous amounts of new data, and ultimately, make our world smarter, easier, and more efficient. Yet, as millions on new IoT devices come online every year, their security remains a number one problem.
In order to be useful, IoT devices must make real-time bi-directional connections to the internet, and that type of communication is challenging to secure. Components of IoT devices are frequently not secure either, and are vulnerable to different kinds of attacks. Component electronics in IoT is based on low-end chips, which are small, inexpensive, and thus have limited memory and processing powers. Only high-end chips are protected sufficiently, because they can support existing heavy-weight security solutions.
There are existing solutions in chip security, but they are incomplete and very specific. They mostly target high-end, expensive chips. Low-end chips (such as the ones used in IoT devices) often lack security, and are vulnerable to attacks. Widespread usage of IoT devices will bring this problem to a new level, because security of a large distributed IoT system is only as good as security of its weakest points. No reliable distributed IoT service can be deployed successfully when its components cannot trust each other to be secure.
Why is it important for society?
Emerging technology Internet of Things (IoT) is promoting exciting new products and making life easier. As the number of interconnected remote embedded devices on IoT infrastructures continues to grow, security concerns and new attack vectors are raising. IoT remote embedded devices are targeting to become more pervasive in our lives and will have access to the most sensitive personal data such as social security numbers and banking information. IoT remote embedded devices are increasingly deployed in exposed environments (e.g. outside of a building, along a pipeline) with physical access and they are used in critical cyber-physical systems, thus a sensor that sends the wrong data to a cyber-physical system can trigger actions with disastrous consequences (e.g. emergency shutdown of a power plant, flooding in automated water management systems, unnecessary and dangerous evasive maneuver in a car). According to Hewlett Packard IoT Research study, IoT remote devices fail to comply with basic security best practices, such as authentication and authorization, wireless link encryption, secure software and firmware and around 70 percent of devices are using unencrypted network services. According to the recent reports, IoT technologies are in “survival and growth phase today” and new developments in security is the key to their success. Moreover, it is stated that software for IoT have hit the growth phase, but security lags.
What are the objectives?
Several building blocks of the INSTET solution are already completed. We have tested these blocks with our existing customers in semiconductor industry and OEMs. But in order to develop INSTET and bring it to the market, we need to ensure a clear product/market fit.
In SME Phase 1 we indicated three vertical markets, wearables, medical and automotive as the first markets to validate. During the project execution, we validate these markets. The results were very positive for wearables and medical markets. On the other hand, we have seen less interest on automotive compared to the markets of wearables and medical. The main obstacle is that automotive is highly regulated and conservative market. On the other hand, during the development of market analysis and by discussing with potential customers we found interest on critical infrastructures market. Some of the discussions probably will reach on new business opportunities and commercial projects. Then we decide to look the critical infrastructures market.
The objectives are:
Commercial/market feasibility
Validate INSTET’s product/market fit in wearables, medical electronics, automotive verticals, critical infrastructure market;
Prepare a detailed go-to-market strategy.
Economic/financial feasibility
Determine INSTET’s business model;
Determine costs, resources and timelines for successful commercialization.