Biometric Tech to Improve IoT Security

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Cyber attacks against IoT devices can cause considerable damages. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has signed a $200,000 contract with Plurilock Security Solutions to develop an identity management platform for IoT devices such as smart devices and sensors.

S&T is looking for a way to authenticate automated digital entities that can take action in cyberspace, or Non-Person Entities (NPEs), to prevent malicious actors from spoofing them to launch attacks, steal information, or spread malware.

The company’s BioTracker identity management platform can authenticate the identity of an NPE with behavioral and contextual data from users, according to the announcement, to protect them from botnets, exploit kits and DDoS attacks designed to target IoT networks.

Anil John, S&T Identity Management R&D Program Manager, said: “With the rapid growth of NPEs, innovative approaches to identify them with a high degree of assurance is paramount. Plurilock’s approach to support both local cryptographic identifiers and a stand-off identification solution for legacy environments could provide DHS with disruptive, state-of-the-art capabilities to protect critical network resources.”

The Canada-based company is the second to be awarded a contract from the S&T Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP). Plurilock also formed a cooperative agreement with the U.S Department of Defense to test BioTracker for combat support last year, according to biometricupdate.com.