Comodo, a global innovator and developer of cybersecurity solutions and the worldwide leader in digital certificates, announced the availability of a new PKI platform for IoT devices and networks. The Comodo IoT Security Platform will allow device manufacturers and network providers to issue and manage PKI and SSL certificates for private ecosystems.
Recent headlines point to attacks by hackers using IoT devices with no security embedded and exposed vulnerabilities. The new Comodo PKI certificate platform directly addresses this problem by enabling trusted, third-party, mutual authentication of devices to networks. This secure identification and connection is essential for the health and safety of both end-user devices and the networks to which they connect.
“Too many devices are coming to market with weak or no security pre-installed,” said†Damon Kachur, head of IoT Solutions at Comodo. “Comodo’s platform will help to ensure that only authenticated and approved devices are connecting to the correct, corresponding and private network. This reduces the risk that IoT devices can be compromised and endanger people’s lives or privacy, or be used in DDoS or hacking attacks.”
PKI is a legacy technology that has been used in IT for more than 20 years, and as encryption strengths grow, it remains a trusted method for authenticating people, devices and network access, and preventing the attack of secure devices. Comodo is expanding the traditional use of PKI to offer an automated platform that will allow PKI certificates to be managed throughout the entire lifecycle at volumes that can scale to the level required for the IoT market.
“IoT is a developing technology use case that demands strong security. There are already billions of devices connected to the global internet, and some researchers are predicting 50 billion by 2020. Enterprises using IoT devices should look to companies like Comodo that can help secure connections to their private networks in a thorough and simple way,” said†Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at ESG. “IoT security is often looked at as a ‘one-and-done’ approach. Comodo can offer the ability to change out a PKI certificate at any time, throughout a connected device’s full lifecycle, adding a new level of consistent security that we just haven’t seen before in this space.”
The new platform also brings a significant innovation to the industry by allowing key rotation to occur on devices, rather than the historic process of issuing one PKI certificate to a device for its entire life.
According to Kachur, “Vulnerabilities are being exposed every day, and an ecosystem or organization needs to be able to react quickly by updating certificates to protect their devices and/or mitigate an attack.”
Comodo is extending the utility and completeness of its IoT certificate solution through an active partner program. The company has already teamed up with Device Authority, a leader in IoT security, for the automated provisioning and management of PKI certificates.
“We are delighted that Comodo has selected KeyScaler to integrate with its IoT PKI security platform,” said†Darron Antill, CEO of Device Authority. “The industry will benefit tremendously from the automation and management features that Device Authority and Comodo are bringing to market.”
Utilizing existing technologies and partnerships, Comodo will continue to invest in the new platform. Slated for the second half of 2018, Comodo plans to integrate Comodo’s cWatch technology into the PKI platform.† This action will allow for devices accessing the network or receiving updates to run through Comodo’s web-based scanning engines to check for any potential virus or malware, adding additional layers of protection for devices and networks.
