​As the number of IoT devices grows, so does the number of potential entry points for hackers seeking to interfere with larger and increasingly critical infrastructures. The risks will only be compounded by the rise of Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The French government selected a project called iMRC (integrated Monitoring and Recovery Component) through a competitive bidding process for cybersecurity automation projects. The objective of iMRC is to detect malicious behavior indicative of a cyberattack so that devices or fleets of devices deemed vulnerable can be fixed. The medium-term goal is to give IoT devices the security and resilience to protect sensitive elements like encryption keys, data, and algorithms without substantial additional costs.

CEA-Leti and CEA-List are partnering with Tiempo Secure, a company that specializes in IoT device security, to develop a hardware and software architecture with an integrated secure element and a monitoring system, all connected to a supervision server running AI-based threat analysis software. The solution will provide just enough near-circuit computing to enable devices to detect cyberattacks and notify the server, which can then automatically reconfigure itself to fend off the attack.

Unlike today's security solutions for IoT devices, this new solution will natively leverage the security element embedded in the device and will be able to manage, monitor, and fix a device if an attack is detected. The system is powered by an AI algorithm running on a secure server to which the device is connected.  A first demonstrator should be ready for the International Cybersecurity Forum (FIC), Europe's leading cybersecurity event, in Lille, France next June.