California-based Maxim Integrated, now part of Analog Devices, has unveiled a low power cryptographic controller to protect edge-to-cloud IoT nodes.

The Max Q1065 controller featuring the firm’s proprietary ChipDNA physically unclonable functionality (PUF) technology, which offers protection for IoT nodes, including medical and wearable devices, against invasive security attacks.

The security co-processor is said to provide thirty-times lower power when compared with similar products and its extended lifetime and operating range make it suitable for long-term deployments in harsh environments.

The co-processor provides turnkey cryptographic functions for root-of-trust, mutual authentication, data confidentiality and integrity, secure boot, secure firmware update, and secure communications. It includes standard algorithms for key exchange and bulk encryption, or complete transport layer security (TLS) support.

The device integrates 8kbyte of secure storage for user data, keys, certificates and counters with user-defined access control and life cycle management functionality for IoT equipment.

“With billions of deployed devices and ongoing exponential growth, it’s common knowledge that IoT devices are a favourite hacking target, normally with malicious intent,” said Scott Jones, managing director for micros, security and software at Maxim. “The threats to the systems critical to society such as infrastructure, medical and industrial are very real and without proper protection they may be compromised. The Max Q1065 with ChipDNA technology is designed to address these threats. Built with the most advanced security technology and targeting IoT applications, it provides a superior level of protection for your equipment and has the technology to future-proof designs against tomorrow’s system threats.”

The low power consumption and wide operating range make it suitable for battery-powered applications, and the small footprint and low pin count enable easy integration into medical and wearable devices. Life cycle management allows flexible access control rules during the major life cycle stages of the device and end equipment, ensuring long-term operation in harsh environments.

The device integrates proprietary ChipDNA PUF technology, which protects against invasive attacks since any attempt to probe the PUF cryptographic destroys its value. It is also supported by a secure key pre-programming service for those who want keys, data and life cycle state initialised prior to shipment to a contract manufacturer.

It includes a TLS/DTLS 1.2 command set built upon hardware-based ECDSA, ECDHE and AES for authentication, key exchange and secure communication.

The device operates at 100nA during power down mode.