Digicert, Utimaco, and Microsoft: Partners in IoT Security. Keeping the world safe from the Internet of Things, aka “the IoT”, was a seemingly impossible task due to the many limitations of these low-power, limited computing capacity devices. Fortunately, in a capitalist society, where there is money to be made…
Digicert, a world leader in digital certificates and security, Utimaco, a leader in cybersecurity, and Microsoft, have poured a foundation for quantum- resistant digital certificates for IoT devices.
Vehicles, smart home devices, and medical devices, to name a few IoT marvels, are envisioned to last beyond the arrival of quantum computing; predicted at 10 to 15 years from today. The real threat is the quantum computer’s theoretical capability to hack RSA, ECC, and other PKI security encryption. If this occurs, those IoT devices without quantum-resitant encryption algorithms could be left vulnerable.”
“DigiCert, Microsoft Research and Utimaco are collaborating today to solve tomorrow’s problem of defending connected devices and their networks against the new security threats that the implementation of quantum computers will unleash,” said Avesta Hojjati, Head of DigiCert Labs, the company’s R&D unit. “Together, we are leading the market with development of hybrid certificates that inject quantum-resistant algorithms alongside RSA and ECC to ensure long-term protection.”
Who is contributing what? DigiCert, is piecing together the digital certificates using the Picnic quantum-resistant digital signature algorithm; Microsoft Research provided the Picnic. To implement this algorithm and issue certificates, Utimaco’s Hardware Security Module (HSM) is being utilized. “The full solution, in development, would provide quantum-safe digital certificate issuance and secure key management, helping companies future-proof their IoT deployments.”
These are bold steps, but ones corporations and governments should follow and model. Because quantum is coming.
