Samsung delved further into the Internet of Things (IoT) with the announcement of a new integrated Secure Element solution meant to improve security on both the hardware and software sides of the equation. That announcement that was made October 19th at the Samsung Developer Conference and via the company’s official newsroom site. The solution itself is intended to make implementing security across both hardware and software much easier for chip manufacturers. On the hardware side of the equation, Samsung says that its new data security solution will stop and reset itself if it detects unusual activity so that any sensitive information stored on the security integrated circuit itself cannot be accessed. As to the software side, the new Secure Element supports verification methods, security key storage, encoding, and decoding. That allows authentication information to be securely transferred to and from the IoT’s wide variety of devices and their connected servers and cloud mediums.
Meanwhile, the new platform does differentiate itself from other currently available solutions. Samsung’s Secure Element makes use of non-volatile embedded flash memory instead of the more traditionally used electrically erasable programmable read-only memory. Moreover, according to the company, that is embedded at the 45-nanometer process node. Aside from being an industry first, that should mean Samsung’s solution provides significant gains in terms of both processing performance and how software modifications can be implemented.
As to what types of technology can take advantage of the Secure Element, Ben K. Hur, Samsung Electronics Vice President of Systems LSI marketing, says it has already been proven to mesh well with application processors, smart card integrated circuits, and semiconductor products. That’s already a wide range of use-cases but Hur also expects that the number of uses for Samsung’s Secure Element will expand alongside the IoT industry itself. Since that industry is just beginning to get started, there’s really no telling yet how many applications will be found for this new solution or how many manufacturers will get on board with it. With that said, there is and always will be a need for strong security where high levels of interconnectivity are a factor and more available solutions to address concerns is not a bad thing.