Renesas, together with partners Data I/O Corporation and Secure Thingz, offers a secure firmware flash programming solution that allows customers to reliably and securely program authorized firmware programs into the flash memory of Synergy microcontrollers (MCUs) in the field, while protecting the firmware from being modified, hacked, or installed on cloned hardware.
OEMs building connected IoT devices face risks including product tampering, system hijacking, espionage, IP theft, and product cloning. Without adequate security, these devices can be exploited to shut down or damage vital industrial infrastructure or cause harm. Given the increasing complexity of the global supply chain, extra due diligence is needed to ensure that a product's integrity and authenticity are maintained in the production environment and not compromised throughout the entire manufacturing cycle, regardless of the location, security level, and capabilities of the contract manufacturers (CMs) or OEM manufacturing personnel and processes. The secure flash programming solution based on the Synergy platform allows OEMs to maintain product integrity and authenticity without relying on CM capabilities.
A chain of trust begins with the delivery of a Synergy MCU with hardware security features to a secure programming center, where a unique root of trust is installed on each MCU using equipment provided by Data I/O. The next step in the chain is for the OEM to use tools provided by Data I/O and Secure Thingz to create their firmware in such a way that it is encrypted, signed, and provisioned on specific MCUs. After this, the Synergy MCUs can be shipped to OEM or CM facilities. Once in the field, the created firmware can be securely updated in the MCUs' flash memory using the root of trust that validates and decrypts the firmware before flash programming. This is all done securely within Synergy MCUs, which provide hardware-protected memory segments integrated with an asymmetric cryptographic engine for firmware validation and decryption. This eliminates concerns about intellectual property theft, piracy, and product cloning.
Renesas provides the Synergy MCU solution and the Synergy Security Reference solution, which offer a robust root of trust through a unique identity, hardware-protected keys, a secure bootloader, a secure flash update module, and cryptographic APIs that interface with the MCU hardware.
^™ toolset , which enables end-to-end encryption of device firmware, secure deployment in high-risk, remote manufacturing environments, and remote firmware updates and management.
^™ Security Programming Platform , a highly flexible and cost-effective security onboarding and data programming solution for authentication devices, secure elements, and secure MCUs, enabling secure provisioning in a secure manufacturing environment or programming center. The SentriX platform includes Secure Thingz's Guardian with an integrated HSM (Hardware Security Module), allowing the SentriX platform and the Secure Deploy suite to work seamlessly together to protect critical firmware and data.
Customers interested in evaluating the solution can obtain an evaluation kit that includes a Synergy DK-S7G2 development kit, tools, the Synergy Security Reference Solution, and an evaluation version of Secure Deploy. Once customers have evaluated the solution, it can be deployed in manufacturing alongside Data I/O's SentriX Security Programming Platform. Customers can also work with Secure Thingz to implement a remote upgrade solution.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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