STMicroelectronics partnered with Sigfox to bring plug and play iot security to industrial equipment and consumer electronics manufacturers

     STMicroelectronics, a leading global supplier of semiconductors across multiple electronic applications, announced the addition of a powerful plug and play solution to its STSAFE family of security units, providing advanced security protection for Sigfox low-power wide-area Internet of Things (LPWAN) devices.

     The new STSAFE-A1SX Secure Unit (SE) is based on tamper-proof Common Criteria EAL5+ certified secure unit technology, enhancing the integrity and confidentiality of data transmitted by iot devices over the Sigfox network. The security unit runs on optimized security applications that integrate ST's market-proven e-security technologies for banking, finance, e-commerce and identity with Sigfox's emerging iot connectivity and data communication technologies.

     STSAFE-A1SX is a miniature, cost-effective security chip solution that connects iot hardware microcontrollers via Intelligent Interface Controllers (I2C). In ST's Secure Personalization Center, the chip is configured with the device ID and key to establish a plug-and-play secure connection to the Sigfox Cloud, further ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of the data exchange. Regardless of whether the data frame is an uplink or downlink message, the STSAFE-A1SX security unit generates and verifies evidence of the integrity of the payload data and optionally encrypted or decrypted information. From the chip factory to the end of the life cycle, secret information such as the key is always stored in the security unit.

     Laurent Degauque, Marketing Director of Secure Microcontrollers at STMicroelectronics MicroControllers & Digital Chips Business Group, said: "By executing Sigfox security services within STSAFE-A1SX, a tamper-proof security unit certified to industry standards, we enable Sigfox Ready™ device vendors and Sigfox application providers to achieve advanced end-to-end security. STSAFE-A1SX makes Sigfox network data security even higher and easier. The customer can simply connect this security unit to a universal microcontroller, such as the STM32, and start developing applications."

     Laetitia Jay, Chief Marketing Officer at Sigfox, said: "It is more important than ever to start thinking about planning security architectures early in the development of iot solutions. To provide our ecosystem partners and customers with advanced tamper-proof circuits certified to industry standards, it is important to work closely with ST. The integrated solution of ST's security unit with the Sigfox firmware library, STM32 and S2-LP sub-1GHz transceivers is an ultra-low-power, high-performance total solution that takes end-to-end security from iot and sensor to the cloud to the next level."

     Like other members of the STSAFE product family, STSAFe-A1SX will be equipped with a full set of development tools and software, supported by a complete ecosystem, so that developers with or without experience in secure design can quickly get started. The product is integrated on an expansion board that is directly compatible with the sought-after STM32 open development environment. Together with the ST S2-LP sub-1GHz transceiver and STM32 microcontroller, ST offers customers a complete Sigfox Ready device reference design