Secure remote firmware updates/secure FOTA update services

Why Secure Firmware Updates are Non-Negotiable

In today's hyper-connected world, your products are no longer static. They are dynamic entities in an ever-evolving digital ecosystem. Customers expect new features, improved performance, and iron-clad security, long after the initial purchase. The ability to deliver these updates remotely is not just a convenience; it's a strategic necessity.

The explosion of IoT devices has created an unprecedented attack surface for cybercriminals. A single vulnerability can lead to large-scale security breaches, data theft, operational disruption, and irreparable brand damage. Proactive and secure firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updates are your first line of defense, enabling you to deploy critical security patches, fix bugs, and roll out new features efficiently and at scale.

Secure remote firmware updates - Offerings

Embien: Your One-Stop Partner for Secure FOTA Implementation

Embien is your dedicated partner in navigating the complexities of secure remote firmware updates. We offer a comprehensive suite of services, from the edge to the cloud, to create a seamless and secure update pipeline for your devices. Our decade-long experience in embedded systems engineering, combined with our deep expertise in cybersecurity, makes us the ideal choice for companies across the automotive, industrial, consumer electronics, and medical domains.

We don't believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. We work closely with you to understand your unique requirements, constraints, and use cases to design and implement a custom FOTA solution that is not only secure and reliable but also optimized for your specific hardware and network environment.

A Multi-Layered Approach to Security

Our Secure FOTA Framework

Our secure FOTA framework is built on the foundational principles of the CIA triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Authenticity. We ensure that your firmware updates are protected at every stage of the process.

End-to-End Encryption

We employ state-of-the-art encryption algorithms like AES-256 to protect the confidentiality of your firmware images, both in transit and at rest.

Code Signing and Authenticity

Using asymmetric cryptography (RSA, ECDSA), we ensure that your devices only accept and install firmware that is digitally signed by you. This prevents unauthorized or malicious code from being loaded onto your devices.

Chain of Trust

We establish a robust chain of trust, starting from a hardware root of trust and extending through the bootloader to the application, ensuring the integrity of the entire software stack.

Atomic Updates & Rollback

Our A/B partition scheme ensures that updates are atomic. In case of an update failure (e.g., due to power loss), the device can automatically roll back to the previous known-good version, ensuring high availability and preventing devices from being "bricked."

Incremental/Delta Updates

We support the delivery of small, incremental updates (delta patches) instead of full firmware images. This minimizes bandwidth consumption, reduces update time, and is ideal for devices on constrained networks like LoRaWAN or cellular.

Secure Boot for embedded system development

The Bedrock of Security: Secure Boot and Chain of Trust

The security of your device is only as strong as its foundation. That's why our secure FOTA solutions are built upon a rock-solid secure boot process. We leverage the hardware security features of modern microcontrollers and processors to create an immutable hardware root of trust.

The secure boot process ensures that the initial bootloader is authentic and unmodified. This bootloader then verifies the signature of the next stage, and so on, creating an unbroken "chain of trust" up to the main application. This makes it virtually impossible for an attacker to compromise the system at boot time or to tamper with the public keys used for firmware verification.

Embien’s Capabilities

Category	Expertise
Comprehensive Solutions	From edge devices to cloud applications.
Customizable FOTA	Tailored to your hardware and use case.
Broad Platform Support	Renesas RH850, STM32, NXP i.MX, TI Sitara, NVIDIA Jetson, Qualcomm Snapdragon.
Multiple Interfaces	USB, CAN, UART, RS232, RS485, BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, Ethernet.
Cloud Integration	AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon S3, HTTPS, MQTT.
Advanced Security	AES, RSA, ECDSA, SHA-2 algorithms; hardware crypto acceleration.
Flexible Updates	Full and incremental updates with A/B imaging and rollback.
Secure Boot	Establishes a chain of trust from startup.

Powering Efficiency with Incremental Updates

Why transmit a 10MB firmware image when only 100KB has changed? Our support for incremental, or delta, updates is a game-changer for efficiency and reliability. We use sophisticated binary diffing algorithms to generate compact patch files that contain only the changes between the old and new firmware versions. Benefits of Incremental Updates:

Reduced Bandwidth Costs: Drastically lowers data consumption, especially for devices on cellular or other metered connections.
Faster Updates: Smaller update files mean less time spent downloading and installing, minimizing device downtime.
Improved Reliability: Shorter update processes reduce the window of opportunity for failures.
Longer Battery Life: Less data transmission and processing time translates to lower power consumption for battery-operated devices