A tamper-reactive cryptographic-node controller has been released by Maxim Integrated Products. The company’s MAX36025 features two hardware Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) engines for easy and more secure encryption.
Utilities worldwide are rolling out smart grids to help manage energy use more effectively. By providing communication at multiple points in the grid, utilities can measure instantaneous electricity consumption, quickly isolate faults, control demand, and inform their customers about pricing and consumption. The constant back-and-forth flow of communication also opens up this critical infrastructure to a cyber attack. This controller is a security manager that can be placed at the access point/data concentrator in a smart grid network to add security to these crucial points of data aggregation.
The devices’ two hardware AES engines move encryption into hardware, drastically reduce design time, and raise the levels of security. System designers do not need to worry about writing encryption code that takes a long time to write, debug, and implement. Encryption software can also have security vulnerabilities in the form of undetected bugs which can be attacked with a virus. The copany’s two AES engines can be used on independent channels to protect different networks or used simultaneously on the same channel for double encryption.
Maxim Integrated Products
