Product of the Week: BG Networks' Security Automation Tool

By Embedded Computing Design Staff

May 10, 2022

The importance of security in embedded designs can never be stressed enough. With the expanding cybersecurity threat landscape and lack of security professionals in the workforce, everyday engineers need to be able to implement hardware root-of-trust-grade security in a robust but simplified manner.

As a solution to streamline the above process and enable authentication, encryption, and provisioning features, BG Networks offers the BGN-SAT (Security Automation Tool) to help users add embedded security into their customized IoT devices. The cybersecurity solution supports embedded processor in-silicon security functions to increase speed and efficiency.

The BGN-SAT takes advantage of built-in hardware features such as support of encrypted boot for RTOS/U-boot for Linux and further compatibility with Windows (and Linux) development environments. The solution also makes use of hardware-based cryptographic accelerators in a secure file system. A command-line control interface is provided for flexible integration of BGN-SAT into development and production environments.

BGN-SAT In Action

For user functionality, the BGN-SAT provides an easy-to-use GUI with a touch feature that simplifies ease of use with a defined security profile. Further, the GUI allows lay-engineers to implement public/private keys for RSA digital signatures up to 4096 bits or AES keys up to 256 bits.

The authentication, encryption, and provisioning features help prevent code injection and modification by creating a hardware root of trust, securely booting the embedded processor, and protecting IP and private data from being stolen while the device is in rest or in motion.

Additional features include:

Unique security for each device at the time of the one-click auto-generated secure key storage
Firmware signing and encryption
Device programming
Provisioning for each individual device

The security tools above allow secure binaries to be downloaded to the device’s flash over a range of interface options for ease of deployment and flexibility.

Getting Started with the BGN-SAT for Automated Security

The BGN-SAT is available today for NXP Semiconductor i.MX 8M and i.MX 6 processors, as well as support for a range of security-enabled Arm processors and FPGA platforms.

For a demonstration of BGN-SAT, check out the video below.