Blockchain-protected industrial IoT security platform launched

Business news | December 15, 2017

By Rich Pell

Comprised of a team of security, industrial digitization, and software experts, the company (whose name is pronounced “Zage”) has been operating behind the scenes for the past 18 months. In that time, it says, it has been perfecting its technology and securing major customers and partners, including companies such as ABB, Dell, and Itron.

“Industry 4.0 is the story of our time, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the heart of this new era,” says Duncan Greatwood, CEO of Xage. “Security is the foundation for IIoT, and today’s enterprise-IT security models of building walls and patching holes simply don’t work for these vast, dynamic networks. We’ve created the first solution to provide the necessary trust and integrity for secure distributed interactions at scale.”

According to the company, its solution provides the essential trusted foundation for secure cooperation and data exchange between machines, people, and applications. Distributing authentication and private data across the network of devices, it is offered as creating a tamper-proof “fabric” for communication, authentication, and trust that assures security at scale.

The company says its platform supports any-to-any communication, secures user-based and machine-to-machine access to existing industrial systems, works at the edge even with irregular connectivity, and gets “stronger and stronger” with every device added to the network.

“Any-to-any communication at the edge with many devices is the worst case scenario for security because you are creating the maximum attack surface,” Greatwood told TechCrunch. However, he says, with Xage’s blockchain approach, “the more participants you have, the more security you have, the more redundancy you have, the harder it is to attack the system and break the consensus the blockchain is there to establish.”

Currently Xage is working with customers and partners across the utility, transportation, manufacturing, and energy industries. Projects range from distributed command and control and automated device deployment to authenticated remote data access.

Examples include power and automation projects with ABB Wireless that require distributed security, and a partnership with Dell to deliver its security services on Dell IoT Gateways and the EdgeX platform for the energy-production industry. In addition, Xage is working with utility technology solutions company Itron to enable intelligent power-optimization applications by creating trust and controlling access between smart meters and power distribution infrastructure.

Xage Security