Laird Connectivity Commits to Security and FIPS 140-2 Across Wireless Connectivity Platforms

Akron, Ohio – November 25, 2019 – Laird Connectivity, a global leader in wireless technology, has announced their investment in enhancing the security architectures across their wireless connectivity platforms. The most recent activity being Laird Connectivity’s pursuit of direct FIPS 140-2 Level 1 certification through the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) as sponsored by NIST and the Canadian CSE.

Laird Connectivity is pursuing a hardware/software hybrid approach for FIPS to maintain network performance and to support data in motion and data at rest for applications requiring FIPS encryption. Laird Connectivity is one of the first system-on-module (SOM) vendors pursuing direct certification for a hybrid approach. This certification will be applicable across Laird Connectivity’s 50 Series and 60 Series which includes the Sentrius™ IG60 wireless IoT gateway, which is powered by the 60 Series SOM. Along with embedded communication modules and system-on-modules, Laird Connectivity plans to have a FIPS certified Linux/AWS (Amazon Web Services) gateway on the market.

FIPS certification is one link in Laird Connectivity’s Chain of Trust security architecture that includes Microchip Technology’s secure boot, secure software provisioning, and over-the-air (OTA) updates, an enhanced Wi-Fi EAP supplicant, fast secure roaming, and Bluetooth 5.1, firewalled ™, all supported within the Laird Connectivity Linux long-term support package.

“We have consistently heard from our customers that FIPS 140-2 certification is a key requirement for their medical application designs,” says Bill Steinike, VP of Product and Business Strategy, “but they struggle with the complexity and investment required to obtain certification.” Laird Connectivity decided to make the commitment and investment to control their own destiny when it comes to FIPS certification. “The benefit for customers who integrate these modules is they can claim ‘FIPS Inside’ based on the Laird Connectivity certification, without further testing or certification required,” adds Steinike.

Laird Connectivity has partnered with Microchip due to the excellent performance, low-power capability, on-chip security, and a product longevity/End-of-Life practice of the SAMA5D Series devices. Laird Connectivity’s implementation leverages the hardware encryption engines and FIPS complaint TRNG available in the Microchip SAMA5D3 Series.

“Microchip focuses on the supply of secure, low power microprocessors for a broad range of long-life embedded applications,” said Rod Drake, Vice President of Microchip’s MPU32 business unit. “Microchip’s commitment to maintain and update our mainline Linux distributions throughout the long-life cycle of our microprocessors reduce the maintenance and support costs for our end customers. We look forward to continuing to support Laird Connectivity, who have requirements for solutions that have long life cycles of greater than 10- years.”

Laird Connectivity is also preparing to become FIPS 140-3 certified as those testing and certification services become available late next year.

Learn more about FIPS 140-2 in this free white paper: www.lairdconnect.com/fips-140-2-white-paper

To learn more about Laird Connectivity, visit: www.lairdconnect.com/

About Laird Connectivity
Laird Connectivity simplifies the enablement of wireless technologies with market-leading wireless modules and antennas, integrated sensor and gateway platforms, and customer-specific wireless solutions. Our best-in-class support and comprehensive engineering services help reduce risk and improve time-to-market. When you need unmatched wireless performance to connect electronics with security and confidence, Laird Connectivity delivers — no matter what.

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