Maxim Integrated Simplifies Security for IoT Designs

While the IoT continues to bring greater conveniences into our lives, left unprotected, smart devices could also open the door to malicious attacks that burrow into networks and attempt to access sensitive data. With its newest cryptographic coprocessor featuring ChipDNA physically unclonable function (PUF) technology, Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. says is simplifying the process of protecting these designs from security threats.

An area where security is important is the industrial IoT, where an attack on automated factory equipment, for example, could disrupt the manufacturing line and lead to lost revenue. Here, it's imperative to ensure that OEM modules are genuine and to establish point-to-point security. Feature control is another consideration. In the production world, it's economical to manufacture, say, one board that supports multiple versions and levels of features. Enabling secure end user feature upgrades protects the integrity of those upgrades. 

Compared to its more easily infiltrated software-based counterpart, hardware security provides layers of advanced physical security, cryptographic algorithms, secure boot, encryption, secure key storage, and digital signature generation and verification to fend off malicious attacks.