WISeKey makes available its Cryptographic Root of Trust to IoT manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers (SPs) worldwide to protect their devices and services

Geneva,  January 5, 2017 –  WISeKey International Holding Ltd (WIHN.SW) (“WISeKey“) today announced that it has made available its Cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) to IoT manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers (SPs) worldwide allowing them to add the RoT at the IoT hardware level to encrypt the communication and authenticate their devices. Wisekey is already working with many IoT manufactures in China and India and has developed an IoT center of excellency in both countries.

WISeKey will be cooperating with local companies participating at these IoT centers of excellence on building points of view, proof of concepts, policies, educational materials including addressing all the distributed ledger capabilities across different Blockchain schemes (public, consortium and private), with industry verticalization and domain specialization (IoT, transactions, messaging, etc.), underpinned by the best underlying technologies from startups, its  key partners and from the community.
WISeKey is currently offering IoT manufacturers the possibility of deploying large scale IoT ecosystems using its Cryptographic RoT and NFCTrusted© technology. This trusted technology integrates wearable technology with secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, and empowers IoT and wearable devices to become secure transactional devices. WISeKey has patented this process in the USA as it is currently used by many IoT providers (for more information) click here

The RoT serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by the operating system (OS) and applications, to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the Cryptographic RoT embedded on the device, the IoT product manufacturers can use code-signing certificates and a cloud-based signature-as-a-service to secure interactions among objects and between objects and people.

At the heart of this strategy is the OISTE-WISeKey Cryptographic RoT which has been actively used since 1999 by over 2.6 billion desktop, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and IoT devices. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic RoT is a universal technology and a pioneer in the identification of objects.
The WISeID NFCTrusted© can be embedded in a connected device without requiring device modification or app downloads. WISeKey’s NFCTrusted© technology is an evolution of the WISeAuthentic solution that WISeKey has already deployed with several leading luxury brands, including over 1 million watches digitally tagged and for which WISeKey recently obtained a US patent (http://goo.gl/ozgOQm).

Addressing fast growing IoT market

The ability to authenticate and remotely manage millions of networked, automated devices and equipment is becoming pervasive – from factory floors, to hospital operating rooms, to residential homes – including billions of objects and devices from refrigerators, watches, wearables to wine bottles – everything that can connect and communicate via the Internet.

The IoT security market is expected to grow from $6.89 billion in 2015 to nearly $29 billion by 2020 according to a report published by Markets and Markets, thus growing at an annual rate of 35%. These massively deployed connected objects are facing regular attacks hence generating a large need for trusted end-to-end cybersecurity solutions. This problem is affecting billions of people and IoT devices worldwide, and manufactures of these devices could be forced or incentivized to spend money to make their devices secure, as regulators might impose liabilities on them.

The rapid growth of the number of connected devices is driving the shift from the current traditional mobile payment method to highly secure transactions from wearable devices using trusted communications and authentication technology. WISeKey’s Cryptographic RT and NFCTrusted© technology enables these wearable devices to connect safely and make secure payments and other transactions.

Our computers and smartphones are as secure as they are because there are teams of specialized security experts working in companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple etc. ensuring their customers are protected. These companies spend a lot of time testing their code before it’s released, and quickly patch vulnerabilities when they’re discovered. Those companies can support such teams because those companies make a huge amount of money, either directly or indirectly, from their software and, in part, compete on its security. This isn’t true for IoT hardware manufacturers putting unprotected IoT on the market sold at a much lower margin, and are often built by offshore third parties. The companies involved simply don’t have the expertise to make them secure.

“The combination of IoT Cybersecurity technologies developed by WISekey with Artificial Intelligence solutions are a game changer in our industry.  This new platform opens up many possibilities for improving the overall security functionalities and creating new business processes by taking advantage of the world of digital identification at the object level, which once combined with big-data allows us to gather and process all available information and generate actionable insights,” said Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO of WISeKey.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading cybersecurity currently deploying large scale Internet of Things (“IoT”) digital identity ecosystems.  WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) integrates wearable technology with secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, and empowers IoT and wearable devices to become secure transactional devices. The RoT serves as a common trust anchor, which is recognized by the operating system and applications, to ensure the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of on-line transactions. With the cryptographic RoT embedded on the device, the IoT product manufacturers can use code-signing certificates and a cloud-based signature as a service to secure interactions among objects and between objects and people. WISeKey has patented this process in the USA as it is currently used by many IoT providers.

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Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.