Nordic Semiconductor has achieved PSA Certification Level 2 for its cellular IoT SiP and flagship multi-protocol SoC, validating its scalable remote software attack protection.

Nordic today announced that it has achieved Platform Security Architecture (PSA) Level 2 certification for its nRF9160™ low-power System-in-Package (SiP) with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS, and its nRF5340™ advanced multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC).

This certification validates that the nRF9160 and nRF5340 are platforms that enable customers to securely implement IoT products.

“The cost of security is significant, but the cost of inaction is much higher, and growing. According to PSA certification, the average cost of a successful attack on an IoT device is over $330,000,” says Tiago Monte, Developer Marketing Manager at Nordic Semiconductor. “That’s why Nordic is committed to enabling our customers to build IoT products based on independently verified silicon and software that ensures a stronger level of protection.” “By achieving PSA Certification Level 2, the nRF9160 and nRF5340 are proven to be secure platforms that have passed rigorous security testing against malware attacks,” the company said.

PSA Certified™ provides a framework for secure connected devices, from analytics to security assessment and certification.

This framework ensures that security measures no longer become a barrier to product development by providing standardized resources to consistently address the increasingly fragmented IoT requirements. Device manufacturers can achieve the security they need for their products through PSA's three security certification levels, which require increasingly rigorous hardware and software evaluations.

PSA Certification Level 2 provides a lab-level assessment of whether a vendor's PSA Root of Trust (PSA-RoT) can protect against scalable remote software attacks. The evaluation test involves PSA-RoT vulnerability analysis and penetration testing to ensure that the nine PSA-RoT Protection Profile security requirements are met.

This SESIP evaluation methodology was also used to evaluate the nRF9160 SiP and nRF5340 SoC, which have additionally achieved SESIP Level 2 certification.

PSA Certified Level 2 includes Level 1, which assesses whether a chip, software, or IoT device properly adheres to security principles.

Nordic Semiconductor's nRF9160 SiP is based on the Arm® Cortex®-M33 CPU core and is first in its class to feature Arm TrustZone® and Arm CryptoCell-310 security for internet-level encryption and application protection.

The nRF5340 features dual Arm Cortex-M33 cores and includes Arm CryptoCell-312, Arm TrustZone technology, and Secure Key Storage.

These integrated security features of the nRF5340 protect the SoC from malicious attacks while supporting advanced root of trust and secure firmware updates.