Tata Communications and Thales team up to boost data security around IoT – Technologist

Tata Communications and Thales are joining forces to develop a secure global IoT connectivity solution.

““IoT could transform how businesses operate and how people engage with one another and with every ‘thing.’ Protecting data against cyber-attacks both at the device and network level is crucial to accelerate IoT adoption worldwide,” said Anthony Bartolo, chief product officer, Tata Communications.

In Tata Communications’ global Cycle of Progress survey, 30% of IT decision makers cited security and 25% cited privacy issues as the biggest barriers to IoT adoption. The combined capabilities of Tata Communications and Thales aims to lower these barriers and enable businesses and manufacturers to make the most of the transformational potential of IoT by giving them peace of mind that their critical IoT data is protected against cyberattacks.

Thales will provide its T-sure warranted digital identity solution to Tata Communications MOVE™ SIM cards, based on technologies from Gemalto, a Thales company. While Tata Communications MOVE encrypts the data in motion (in current use), T-Sure protects the information at rest (archived) on the SIM, therefore safeguarding data both on the network and at the device level.

The two companies look to undertake a series of proof-of-concepts with customers to test this solution in action.

Automotive industry as initial target market 

Specifically, both companies are eyeing the automotive industry as the initial target for their solution.

The Thales and Tata Communications’ solution aims to secure the data that vehicles carry and provide control over data and applications, while keeping hackers and cyber-criminals at bay. Reliable communications from vehicles to infrastructure (V2I) and from vehicle to vehicle (V2V) will help unlock the value in data generated by vehicles in applications such as driving pattern analytics, emergency services or preventive maintenance.

Thus, the manufacturer will be able to gather data through the SIM to ensure a vehicle is operating safely, the dealership can use the SIM for keeping track of the maintenance logs, and the vehicle car owner can trust that his or her private information stays private. The solution aims to allow for multiple secure ‘vaults’ within the vehicle to which only the vault owner has access.

This means that the manufacturer, dealership and vehicle owner will each have their own private, secure space to store information, run applications and establish communications, and the security of these vaults would be enabled and managed via the Tata Communications MOVE platform.

“The only thing that will allow IoT to fulfil its potential and bring about innovations like autonomous vehicles is totally trusted and secure data connectivity,” said Gareth Williams, vice president, Secure Communications & Information Systems, Thales/

He added: “The marriage of Tata Communications’ expertise in the connected automotive sector with Thales’s leadership position in IoT and data security, reinforced by the integration of Gemalto, is driving an offering that will give end users complete trust in the integrity of their data whilst opening up new business opportunities for manufacturers.”