IoT Security – x509 certificates and TLS-secured networking with ConceRTOS

Each connected device is a potential security risk

The internet of things (IoT) has experienced a remarkable boom in recent years. According to “IoT Analytics”, there were 800 million active IoT device connections in 2010. This number has grown to a mind-blowing 12.2 billion active connections counted in 2021. By 2025 the predictions claim that number to increase to 30.9 billion active IoT connections. Also, according to the same source, in 2020, for the first time, there were more active IoT connections than non-IoT connections.

All these connected devices pose a significant potential security risk. If compromised, they may open doors for criminals to spy on and collect sensitive data of end-users; or they could be used as steppingstones into the networks of the companies to which those devices report.

Unfortunately, in our experience, many IoT devices are not designed with security in mind. In many cases, these devices lack the processing power and storage capabilities to support effective security features.

ConceRTOS provides relief

ConceRTOS, our development framework for embedded systems offers a lightweight solution that gives developers the tools to seamlessly build TLS-secured networking into their device firmware.

TLS, or Transport Layer Security, enables end-to-end encryption of communication through a network, making all exchanged information confidential.

Through the use of certificates, TLS further provides authenticity and integrity. That means, both ends of the communication line can be sure that the other is the one they claim to be (authenticity) and that the information received from them is unchanged (integrity).

ConceRTOS supports both server-side and client-side X.509 certificates with TLS version 1.2, giving its user access to the full potential of TLS.

Read on how this prevents bluetooth impersonation attacks (BIAS).