Scalable end-to-end security platform from u-blox addresses LPWA IoT device use cases

Available on both the u-blox SARA-R4 and SARA-R5 series of LTE-M cellular IoT modules, this innovative solution makes it extremely simple to protect data from malicious third parties, both on the device and during transmission from the device to the cloud. Its out-of-the box, simple, secure, and cost effective onboarding process to leading cloud IoT platforms speeds up development, shortening time-to-market.

The IoT Security-as-a-Service offering, which is managed via the u-blox Thingstream service delivery platform, is specifically optimized for low power wide area (LPWA) deployments that use resource-constrained IoT devices. By substantially reducing data overhead and keeping the number of handshakes to a minimum, the service improves power consumption and extends the battery life, a critical metric for most IoT devices.

Central to the effectiveness of the solution is a unique symmetric key management system (KMS). Through it, an infinite number of crypto keys can be generated on the fly for each device, rather than having to rely on the storage and management of pre-shared keys (which can add to overall operational complexity and the power budget). Keys are tied to the hardware and can be triggered from either the module or from the server/cloud, completely eliminating the need to create, deliver, and renew certificates, and bringing significant savings in terms of system cost, operational complexity, and power consumption.

The solution also leverages u-blox’s Foundation security offering, which comprises fundamental elements that make SARA-R4 and SARA-R5 modules secure by design. These include a unique and immutable device identity that is tied to its root of trust (RoT), which forms the basis for a trusted set of advanced security functionality, including a secure boot mechanism that ensures that the module can only run trusted software. In addition, u-blox’s proprietary uFOTA feature enables authentication of over-the-air firmware updates.