Nexus Group, an IN Groupe company, has developed its Smart ID IoT software and Nexus GO IoT cloud platform, which enable companies from all industries to issue and manage the lifecycle of trusted identities for IoT devices from production to their life on the field. This is achieved for all types of devices, thanks to a partnership with Trusted Objects, using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security technology that provides secure digital identities in the form of cryptographic keys and digital certificates.

Trusted Objects and Nexus Group have worked closely to offer a  joint security solution that includes Nexus PKI solution and Factory CA, Trusted Objects to-protect, software-based secure element for any microcontroller unit (MCU), and tops plug&go, a secure manufacturing solution, which is presented here: 

Thanks to this technology, at the manufacturing stage, an initial PKI-based device identity is created, using Nexus Factory CA, and securely provisioned with Trusted Objects secure programing solution tops plug&go. This initial digital certificate, called “factory certificate”, and the associated private key are protected in the MCU by to-protect. Once the device is on the field and has to be onboarded to a cloud-based IoT application, to-protect will generate a new PKI key and request an “application certificate” from Nexus GO IoT. This new “application certificate” enables the device to be authenticated at the cloud IoT application and to establish a secure communication.

Thanks to the solution developed by Trusted Objects and Nexus Group, IoT device vendors and application providers are able to implement a seamless, secure, and automated certificate management solution in their supply chain and applications.