Recent Support for IoT Security and Quantum Technology Legislation
Small business owners are embracing the benefits of connected technologies and the IoT, but in many cases they are not addressing the security vulnerabilities that come with connected technologies. This type of behavior is encouraging lawmakers to propose IoT security legislation like California’s connected devices security bill, the first of its kind.
While federal legislation for IoT security has been receiving some pushback, there has been notable government support for another important field: quantum technology. Along with this recent development, a group of scientists made a revelatory quantum computing announcement. Read on for the details in this month’s IoT Security news roundup.
Senators Push for Federal IoT Security Legislation
California’s recent passage of legislation intended to ensure the implementation of reasonable security features on IoT devices may breathe new life into the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2017, a U.S. Congressional bill that had been stalled. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, along with Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), introduced the bill. Warner maintains that the bill is “common sense,” stating that he spoke to the NSA, DHS, DOD and FBI and they all would “like to see stronger security.” Read more at FCW.
Small Business Owners Embracing the IoT But Not Managing Risks
A Nationwide survey found that 91 percent of business owners use connected technology, but many are not doing enough to protect themselves from risks associated with connected devices. Tim Nunziata, director of E&S Specialty at Nationwide, cited the use of drones in agriculture as an example of this attitude, stating, “American Farm Bureau has estimated that roughly 75 percent of commercial farmers have IoT technologies in place, but less than 5 percent have plans in place to deal with breaches.” Read more about the survey results at PYMTS.
New Plan Backs Government-Led Quantum Technology
Quantum computers will have a potentially transformative impact quantum on the U.S. economy and national security due to, among other things, their ability to break today’s common cryptographic methods. Forbes contributor Arthur Herman highlighted a recent government plan backing quantum technology. Herman applauded the National Strategic Overview for Quantum Information Science (QIS), released by a subcommittee of the Committee on Science for the National Science and Technology Council. The overview calls for the government to “provide the key infrastructure and support needed to realize the scientific and technological opportunities” for quantum computing to be a reality. Read more about the plan.
University Demonstrates Proof of Quantum Computing Advantage
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) issued a release asserting, “[s]cientists have now demonstrated for the first time that quantum computers do indeed offer advantages over conventional computers.” According to the university, professor Robert König and his colleagues developed a quantum circuit that can solve a specific “difficult” algebraic problem that cannot be solved using classical constant-depth circuits. König commented, “Our result shows that quantum information processing really does provide benefits — without having to rely on unproven complexity-theoretic conjectures.” Read the full story here.
SecureRF is participating at the following industry events. Come by and see the future of security for embedded devices and talk to our associates about how we can help protect your IoT solutions. To arrange a meeting with our executives and technical staff at any of the following events, or to schedule a call with our team, please click here.
STMicroelectronics Tech Tour, November 8, Boston Marriott Burlington, Burlington, MA: SecureRF’s Vice President of Engineering, Drake Smith will introduce a fast, small-footprint key agreement protocol and digital signature algorithm that both complement the existing security offerings on STM32F7x0 Value Line MCUs for real-time IoT devices. Attendees will learn why these two public key methods are so critical for strong identification and authentication today, and how this easy to use software-only library can be quickly incorporated into their STM32-based products. In addition, SecureRF personnel will be on hand to demonstrate SecureRF’s speed and other performance advantages compared to ECDSA/ECDH on an STM32F7x0 Value Line processor.
Applied Crypto Symposium Silicon Valley 2018, November 13, Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA: SecureRF’s CEO, Louis Parks, will be presenting a talk titled Challenges in Securing the IoT in a Post Quantum World. This talk will discuss the difficulties securing some of our most important and critical IoT devices due to their reliance on low-resource processors. The talk also looks ahead to unique challenges that come with the development of quantum computers. Register online for the Applied Crypto Symposium.
VLAB Quantum Computing Forum, November 15, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. CEO Louis Parks will be on a panel at the next VLAB Forum titled: “Quantum Computing: Technology Nirvana or Security Armageddon”. Panelists will share their thoughts on when quantum computing will find its way into production, how organizations may protect against potential misuse and if the US has fallen behind other countries in the quantum computing race. Learn more and register here.
RISC-V Summit, December 3-6, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA: Come to our booth to learn about our authentication and identification solutions for processor-to-processor security for RISC-V. Members of our technical team will also be on hand to demonstrate the performance advantages of our Secure Boot and Secure Firmware Update solutions on the SiFive “HiFive” board.
Consumer Electronics Show, January 8-11, Las Vegas, NV: Meet SecureRF executives at CES to discuss how our fast, ultra-low-power and small footprint methods address the security challenges faced by the automotive and consumer electronics markets today.
Not attending any of the events listed above? Please contact us for information or a free consultation.
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Recent Support for IoT Security and Quantum Technology Legislation
