HIS technology applied to protect cloud based data storage
1 min read
Inside Secure and Intrinsic-ID have developed what they claim is a new class of secure microcontrollers for smart cards that provides the highest levels of security for cloud based transactions.
By combining Inside's secure microcontroller designs with Intrinsic-ID's Hardware Intrinsic Security (HIS) technology, the companies will use the unique physical characteristics of each chip to protect cryptographic keys, and thus make the devices extremely hard to clone or reverse engineer.
The HIS based microcontrollers will be packaged in multiple formats, the first being a USB smart card token to support Intrinsic-ID's Saturnus secure cloud application. According to the company, this protects digital assets stored and shared in the cloud, bringing a professional level of security.
Using Saturnus, files are encrypted before they are uploaded to the cloud. Encryption keys are generated and managed inside a USB hardware security token plugged into the user's device. Using HIS technology, Saturnus allows secret keys to be extracted from the hardware properties of the smartcard chip in the USB token. Since the keys are not present when the device is switched off, a very high security level is achieved.
"With a billion files synced every day via Dropbox," said Pim Tuyls, Intrinsic-ID's ceo, "the industry is clearly moving to a 'synch and share' model, which provides greater flexibility and ease of use but also presents bigger security risks. Our announcement takes this model to a new level by making security a seamless part of the equation."
