Memory chips can help secure and manage IoT devices
Summary
Because injecting and storing keys involves some risk – both the process and the storage medium need to be protected from attack – there has been a growing trend towards generating random numbers within the fabric of the silicon by exploiting a phenomenon known as Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs). One PUF-based memory family, ArmorFlash NOR Flash from Macronix, has the added advantage of being compatible with a software platform that enables provisioning, onboarding, and lifetime management of IoT devices at scale. In short, ArmorFlash is a secure memory for data and code that can also serve as a hardware Root-of-Trust for an IoT device by providing a unique ID, authentication, and encrypted links. The combined technologies can be deployed without specialist cryptographic knowledge and at scale, enabling thousands of IoT devices to be connected to services and applications within a few minutes. Ecosystems such as the one described here, that combine proven Root-of-Trust technologies in NOR Flash with a comprehensive, secure software platform, promise to eliminate many of the challenges to successful IoT deployment.