Patents Detail IoT Security Scheme

Rick Merritt, EETimes, Jul. 25, 2017 – 

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A pioneer of magnetic stripe cards extended its security mechanism for the Internet of Things, hoping to attract licensees for three patents on the approach. The offer comes as patents are coming under cost pressure due to increased difficulties defending them, said one broker.

Jerome Svigals led a 200-person team several decades ago at IBM that created security for magnetic stripe cards based in part on a 40-digit code. The IoT version puts a small solid state device between each device on an IoT network, looking for a similar code, a sender's device number and send and receive times from a synchronized random clock, said Svigals, who has been working as a consultant and independent inventor since retiring from IBM.

The technique is described in his book on Internet security and defined in three U.S. patents (Nos. 9,319,404, 9,344,437 and 9,432,378). The patent office granted Svigals about 14 patents while working at IBM and 16 patents since he left.

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