Swiss-based digital security and cybersecurity company WISeKey has announced that it will establish an IoT Blockchain Center of Excellence in the U.S. in a move to offer a secure IoT model for performing common tasks like sensing, processing, storing information, and communicating, among others.
The Center will be located in New York and will begin its operations in the third quarter of 2017. According to the company, the Center will offer a blockchain platform that will facilitate US-based enterprises to rapidly adapt on-board solutions and services that are based on the distributed ledger.
“The urgent need to secure IoT in the U.S. and globally, became more imminent following the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in October 2016, which was the largest of its kind in history,” Carlos Moreira, WISeKey’s CEO, stated. “While experts agree that IoT remains unsecure, this attack should serve as a wake-up call to quickly improve security. Thus far, a lot has been done to improve corporations’ ability to improve response once attacked, but there has been no real strategy to find a solution to prevent such attacks in the first place. WISeKey’s technology provides just that… a much needed solution to secure IoT and user identities and minimize risks.”
WISeKey and other U.S.-based companies will collaborate in the Center on creating points of view, proof of concepts, policies, and educational materials, among others. This includes addressing all the blockchain potentials across various blockchain schemes including public, private and consortium with that of domain specialization like IoT, transactions, messaging, that are underpinned by new and innovative technologies from startups.
The Center will also perform research, rapid pilot prototyping, co-creation of use cases and IP creation on the distributed ledger technology and platforms. There will be a WISeID created and each node gets a copy of the WISeID Blockchain and gets downloaded automatically upon joining the WISeID network. The WISeID Blockchain application allows users to control their digital identity stored on their mobile, IoT sensor or computer.
The company has been involving in various strategic partnerships last year with global enterprises including SAP, MasterCard, Microsoft and Centurylink. It has been working to address most relevant blockchain technology developments with practical, standards-based solutions, by collaborating with industry leaders and experts from the government, and academia.
