PSA Certified is a well respected security body for Internet of Things (IoT) hardware, software and devices co-founded by Arm and has awarded PSA Certified Level 3 status to Silicon Labs’ EFR32MG21, a wireless SoC with Secure Vault.
Secure Vault, which delivers the stringent security software and PUF hardware requirements as defined by PSA Certified Level 3, looks to significantly reduce the risk of IoT ecosystem security breaches and the compromise of intellectual property or revenue loss from counterfeiting.
Secure Vault technology:
• Protects against scalable local and remote software attacks
• Defends against local hardware attacks, which – although historically less common than software attacks – are on the rise due to the surge of affordable and easily accessible tools
• Passes testing from independent third-party laboratories that attempt to infringe security functions for a specified amount of time with sophisticated equipment
“As attacks on IoT applications continue to rise and grow in complexity, the importance of securing devices at the chip level remains crucial,” said Andy Rose, chief system architect and fellow at Arm. “Silicon Labs is the first silicon provider to achieve PSA Certified Level 3 status, demonstrating a proven PSA Root of Trust and a solution that offers substantial protection against an extensive range of sophisticated software and hardware attacks.”
“The continued growth of the IoT depends on trusting that devices are authentic and secure when they join ecosystems,” said Matt Johnson, senior vice president of IoT at Silicon Labs. “Security certifications like PSA Certified Level 3 give IoT device makers and end users the assurances they need to know their IoT applications are protecting their secret identities used for authentication and prevent counterfeit or rogue devices from entering their supply chain, which can cause irreparable harm to brands and revenue. Silicon Labs has made strategic investments to become the leading provider of secure IoT wireless solutions and becoming the world’s first silicon innovator to achieve PSA Certified’s highest level of security is strong validation we’re succeeding.”
Launched in 2020, Secure Vault is a suite that contains state-of-the-art features designed to help connected device manufacturers address escalating and ever-evolving IoT security threats and regulatory pressures.
Secure Vault includes its own security core with its own ROM, RAM, and Flash containing core crypto algorithms and True Random Number Generator (TRNG) functions, as well as secure key management and storage, physical tamper protection, along with a secure identity created by the chip itself at manufacture and anchored by a Silicon Labs root certificate chain.
Last year, Secure Vault achieved PSA Certified Level 2 status and also earned ioXt Alliance SmartCert certification for its strong IoT security protection. In October 2020, the ioXt Alliance selected PSA Certified as a foundational Root of Trust scheme in its certification program.
