Eindhoven, The Netherlands, February 2, 2015. Intrinsic-ID, a leading provider of device-unique security solutions, today announced the company has won a procurement from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the national government of the Netherlands for its phone as a security token project. The SBIR is a collaboration between the Netherlands’ government and local entrepreneurs to bring to market innovative products and services that solve important social problems.
Intrinsic-ID was one of six companies awarded funds as part of Phase II of the SBIR Cybersecurity initiative and competed against 72 other proposals as part of Phase I. The Intrinsic-ID project, named: Bring Your Own Security (BYOS), aims to turn a standard smartphone into a universal, two-factor authentication device with the use of Intrinsic-ID’s proprietary Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) technology, also know as Hardware Intrinsic Security (HIS). This enables a standard cell phone to be used for sensitive and private applications, without compromising other features or adding costs.
Intrinsic-ID’s project, to bring advanced PUF technology to standard cell phones, was ranked first among 19 participants in this round. The evaluation commission mentioned that it has “high expectations from the impact of the project as the innovations solves the authentication issue, one of the critical problems in cybersecurity.” The evaluation commission included security experts from four Dutch ministries (Justice, Interior, Defence, Finance) as well as private sector experts. The Dutch Enterprise Agency (RVO) is responsible for the implementation of the SBIR Cybersecurity program.
The SBIR program is a government procurement program that focuses on solving concrete social challenges requiring technological innovation and entrepreneurship. The Intrinsic-ID project being funded essentially uses Intrinsic-ID’s PUF-based HIS technology to make a standard cell phone act as a security token. The project involves cooperation with smartphone manufacturers for the integration of Intrinsic-ID’s HIS technology in new smartphones. In addition, Intrinsic-ID will develop the Saturnus Security Framework software development kit (SDK), which will enable software developers to create secure applications such as secure cloud access, secure enterprise network access, mobile payments, banking and authentication in general.
“Winning this procurement is a key milestone for us and our efforts to make Hardware Intrinsic Security more broadly available,” said Dr. Pim Tuyls, CEO of Intrinsic-ID and the inventor of Hardware Intrinsic Security. “With the endorsement of the Dutch Enterprise Agency as well as the opportunity to work with other partners in this program, we will be able to bring our concept to market much more rapidly and fully then if we did this on our own. We appreciate the efforts of the SBIR program in supporting entrepreneurs in all key phases of product innovation from research and development to commercialization.“
In the first phase of SBIR Cybersecurity, 73 proposals were submitted and reviewed by an independent committee of experts. After feasibility studies and further research and development the committee selected the six best plans. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) is responsible for implementation of SBIR Cybersecurity II, which makes a total of € 1.2 million available to the winners. Each winning project will receive up to € 200,000 over the next year and a half. During this time each of the six winners will work with 13 other companies and five research institutions to fully develop their projects into commercial products by the second half of 2016.
About Intrinsic-ID
Intrinsic-ID (intrinsic-id.com) is a world leader in security IP cores and applications based on patented Hardware Intrinsic Security™ technology (HIS), also referred to as a “Physical Unclonable Function.” In HIS, secret keys are extracted from the properties of chips like an ‘electronic fingerprint’ and used to offer a total protection of sensitive private and corporate data on mobile devices, embedded systems and in the cloud. Intrinsic-ID’s wide range of security solutions serve the following markets: Embedded systems, IoT, Identification, automotive, communications, content distribution, pay TV, government and defense. Intrinsic-ID is headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands and has sales offices in San Jose, Tokyo and Seoul.
