IoT Security is Imec Target

Program develops lightweight embedded crypto

By Rick Merritt, EETimes,BRUSSELS, May. 25, 2016 – 

Engineers need to plug security holes in the Internet of Things, according to Imec launching a program with that goal. Separately, the research institute based here announced progress developing an alternative solar photovoltaic technology that could both disrupt and enhance today's mainstream approach.

Imec is seeking partners for a new research program that will develop a lightweight security model for wearables and sensor nodes, spanning hardware and software techniques such as distance-bounded protocols and unclonable functions. It will use its own prototype health sensor, MuseIC, as the first vehicle for adding new crypto IP blocks, later expanding to radio chips.

Chip design firm Barco Silex and the Holst Centre in the Netherlands are the first partners in the program which leverages Imec's acquisition in February of iMinds, a Belgian software research group and developer of the widely used Advanced Encryption Standard. The institute now has a European Union grant to develop a version of elliptic curve cryptography that draws less than five microjoules.

Click here to read more...