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Microsoft Announces Secured-Core Edge and IoT Devices

Microsoft announced on Monday new Internet of Things (IoT) and edge devices that will feature the company's Secured-core security design.    

The use of the Secured-core approach with IoT devices was said to be at the "general availability" stage, meaning that it's deemed ready for production use by Microsoft. Moreover, new Secured-core IoT certified products were announced. They included four IoT gateway devices, namely:

These products are certified under Microsoft's "Edge Secured-core" program.

Microsoft first initiated a certification program for Secured-core PCs, but later extended it to Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI as well, and now it's extended to IoT machines. These devices are designed to avoid malware at the bootup or firmware stage, which may not get detected by antimalware software.

On the IoT device side, Edge Secured-core certification brings various operational perks. It provides a security agent for addressing threats. Data encryption is enabled, both at rest and in transit. Devices get three years of update deliveries via the Windows Update service. Organizations also get some management capabilities.

Edge Secured-core certification also brings a bunch of integrations with other Microsoft products. These devices can leverage Azure IoT Hub connections, which is used to enable "hardware-based device identity." These devices also will work with the Microsoft Azure Attestation service.

Microsoft claims that its Secured-core approach for PCs has made those machines "60 percent more resilient to malware" compared with non-Secured-core machines. The same benefits are now coming to IoT devices, contended David Weston, vice president for enterprise and OS security at Microsoft.

Weston described Secured-core certification for IoT devices as "a huge step forward in making IoT devices as secure as modern laptops, phones and cloud infrastructure," via a June 21 Twitter post.

The Secured-core for IoT and Edge devices isn't just for Windows machines. Microsoft also supports Linux, including its own Microsoft Mariner Linux distro, Weston added.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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