Internet of Things (IoT) security got a boost this week: SafeHaven, a system that enables granular control of IoT devices in a smart home, has won the inaugural GlobalPlatform Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) hackathon.
GlobalPlatform is a cross-industry body that defines and develops specifications for secure chip technology. It challenged programmers, idea generators and designers to create trusted applications that make use of the latest TEE security technology.
The winning solution impressed judges as it had two trusted applications (one securing the user credentials and one controlling user access in a TEE) as well as two mobile applications (one performing administration and one performing user functionality).
Without prior experience of using the technology, developers Subhash Gutti and Harish Gowda created a functioning gateway system during the hackathon which remotely, instantly and securely denies or grants access to IoT devices using the TEE.
"In the age of mobile and IoT devices, the importance of secure operations and transactions of applications, backed by hardware security, is acknowledged and valued more than ever," said Henry Lee, vice president of security R&D for Samsung Mobile, which sponsored the event. "I believe that hackathons will continue to act as a catalyst for recognizing the importance of trusted applications, TEE and hardware-backed security."
Rolling IDs, a start-up focusing on producing small wearable asset trackers, was named runner up, as it successfully demonstrated how TEE technology can host an algorithm that ensures privacy-by-design tracking mechanism. The second runner up, TuffPass, was a TEE-based consumer object which was designed to create, store and retrieve strong passwords.
“The TEE is poised to become the standard for ensuring device integrity, data confidentiality and authenticity for IoT devices,” said Abhijeet Rane, vice president of marketing at Sequitur Labs, which provided the development platform in the form of a Raspberry Pi and its TEE virtual environment. “It is imperative for developers to understand this technology and learn to develop applications that utilize it. The TEE hackathon event provided the opportunity to engage with and train developers, and a forum for developers to learn about TEE use cases.”
Hackathon participants were invited to compete for cash prizes and the chance to present their trusted applications to TEE experts at the GlobalPlatform TEE Conference.
“Our objective in setting up this hackathon was to allow developers to implement ideas on TEE and the result has been outstanding; developers were able to quickly develop impressive secure application prototypes,” said Gil Bernabeu, technical director for GlobalPlatform.
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