TOP TAKES is IoT Sources’ filtered content channel, bringing you the most important breaking news and notable events surrounding the Internet of Things. Today’s post originated from: Globenewswire.com.
WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey”, SIX: WIHN), a leading cybersecurity and IoT company, today announced that it is accelerating its Semiconductors IoT sales through the signing of new agreements for smart cities and smart cars in China and a major contract to secure hardware such as cameras and routers in the United States.
Carlos Moreira, WISeKey’s Founder and CEO, noted, “Our recent agreements and expansion in several large markets, including China, the European Union and the United States have positioned WISeKey as a major player in the Semiconductors IoT segment. We expect these agreements to generate approximately $32 million in revenues in FY2017. As we continue to leverage our core competencies and expand into a large and fast growing cyber security market, we expect revenue growth to accelerate from this segment in FY2018.”
The IoT industry has become a game changing new business opportunity for WISeKey. An estimated 50 billion IoT devices are expected to be connected by 2020, while world’s population is estimated to grow to 6.8 billion; thus, there will be more than 7 IoT devices per person connected to the internet by 2020. Global spending on IoT/IoE technology-based services is now expected to reach $3 trillion by 2025 and WISeKey is well positioned to take advantage of many significant opportunities in this large market.
Recent agreements include partnerships with global organizations to secure IoT devices and the huge and increasing amount of sensitive data exchanged between these devices. The IoT chips produced by WISeKey allow companies to provide users with new type of applications, designed to offer increased control over the use of resources, improve efficiency, optimize processing of information, secure autonomous vehicles, improve public safety, etc.
In the US, WISeKey’s chips are used to secure and authenticate over 10 million routers using unique Secure Certificate based IDs and encryption (SSH) keys. This technology is also used in closed-circuit TV (CCTV) or DVR devices and satellite antenna equipment.
WISeKey chips are also used to secure video cameras that can understand and analyze the scene the camera is capturing; spot a piece of luggage left behind at an airport and issue an alert; identify a car being sought in connection with a crime based on its color, shape, and dented left bumper, even if the license plate has been covered up; and spot drivers who are texting while driving and potentially passing on this information to law enforcement officials that can then issue a ticket.
WISeKey is working with several smart car manufactures to integrate the WISeKey IoT and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) with Connected Car solutions. The WISeKey technology allows manufacturers to authenticate car components and enables owners to securely interact with the car’s smart features.
BI Intelligence expects the number of connected cars sold each year to continue to increase; of the 94 million cars expected to be sold in 2021, 82% will be connected cars. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 35% from 21 million connected cars sold in 2016. As the number of total connected cars is growing quickly (to over a quarter of a billion by year 2020, as estimated by Gartner), smart car manufactures are working to identify and reduce potential hacking vulnerabilities in their vehicles.
WISeKey was also able to enter the complex Chinese semiconductor and IoT market through the signing of new partnerships. Recently, WISeKey announced that its IoT blockchain technology is to be deployed in selected smart cities in China and its chips are already deployed in Nanjing Smart City. Companies in China like Feitian Technologies are developing innovative hardware and software solutions to enable users, applications and devices to securely authenticate the networks, verify the authenticity and integrity of firmware upgrades, and limit access to sensitive information to authentic users only. Such enhanced cryptographic techniques, based on proven technologies like PKI, high-security chips and hardened middleware will offer a robust barrier against the DDoS attacks.
