Guardtime, an industrial Blockchain platform, and Intrinsic-ID, an embedded authentication provider, have announced an alliance to deliver security and governance for the Internet of Things (IoT).
In a blog post, the companies say they will target defense customers, as well as telecoms operators rolling out smart city solutions.
The two firms will combine their technology solutions in the hope that these prove to be more effective than current security techniques, such as firewalls and anti-virus software, which are often said to be outdated and ineffective for the IoT.
Blockchain to introduce IoT governance
The companies will combine Intrinsic-ID’s SRAM Physical Unclonable Functions with Guardtime’s Keyless Signature Infrastructure Blockchain technology.
Intrinsic-ID’s SRAM PUF security technology creates device-unique cryptographically secure keys used to authenticate devices.
Guardtime’s KSI Blockchain is an industrial-grade Blockchain stack.
The companies say that by using PUF (physical unclonable function) Technology to authenticate a device and registering that device with ownership information on a ledger, the provenance and integrity of every piece of data generated by that device can be cryptographically proven and linked back to an authenticated device with end to end chain of custody.
This way the data integrity and authentication perimeter is extended all the way to the silicon chips where the data originates.
Related: Isle of Man tests Blockchain to secure Internet of Things devices
A ‘new level of security and governance’ for IoT
Matthew Johnson, Guardtime CTO said: “Having worked with PUF technologies over the last 15 years, I’m convinced that Intrinsic-ID is the first company to successfully industrialize the technology and bring it to the mainstream.”
Commenting for Intrinsic-ID, Pim Tuyls CEO said: “The combination of PUF technology and Blockchains represents a new level of security and governance for customers who wish to deploy IoT devices at scale.”
Blockchain and IoT – a shared future?
As well as being a potentially more secure way of storing and transferring data in the IoT, Blockchain may also reduce the cost and complexity of doing business across a network of people and goods.
This is according to IBM, which has just announced a new capability that connects Internet of Things data to a private Blockchain through its IBM Watson IoT Platform.
Related: This ‘smart’ Blockchain plug could help cut your energy bills