LuxTrust Commits to Securing the Internet of Things

A secure home automation application project has won the first "IoT Security Challenge" in Luxembourg.

Last May, LuxTrust, in partnership with Tyfone and with the support of the Interdisciplinary Centre "Security, Reliability and Trust" (SnT), launched the first "IoT Security Challenge "in Luxembourg. The objective of the competition was to enable teams around the world to work on security problems for the Internet of objects.

A total of ten groups were pre-selected and seven teams developed their projects. By integrating the Tyfone Connected Smart Card™ and the LuxTrust PKI, teams had to develop a secure connected solution. PKI is an established and standardised technology that ensures the authentication, encryption and integrity of data necessary to secure connections and communication between devices.

For Pascal Rogiest, CEO of LuxTrust, "there are millions of IoT devices running today that lack basic security features, compromising our privacy, trust and security. At LuxTrust, we are convinced that PKI is a powerful solution for securing the Internet of objects. By combining strong digital identities with objects, we extend and take advantage of our know-how acquired in the field of personal digital identities."

On 4 October 2016, the four finalist teams presented themselves before a jury composed of members of LuxTrust, Tyfone, the University of Luxembourg, Digital Lëtzebuerg, Luxinnovation, PwC, ICTK, InTech and TechnoPort.

The winners of the evening were Florent Robinet and Jonathan Maes, from Namur (Belgium), with their project for a secure home automation application. Second prize went to Leandro Gil and Francisco J. Rodriguez Lera from Luxembourg with a robotics project, third was awarded to Etan Bennett from the USA for his healthcare app and fourth prize went to Excello from South Korea with Industry 4.0.