Afero, Inc.

Lucas Finkelstein

Scott Zimmerman

Stephen Sewerynek

Shannon Holland

Nickolas Heckman

Robey Pointer

Chris Auito

Chris Aiuto

Joe Britt

Clif Liu

Erhard Riedl

A system and method are described for preventing security breaches in an IoT system. For example, one embodiment of a system comprises: an Internet of Things (IoT) device comprising a wireless communication module to establish communication with a plurality of IoT hubs over local wireless communication channels; advertising control logic to transmit first advertising beacons to the plurality of IoT hubs of a user indicating that the IoT device is connectable; the advertising control logic to begin transmitting a second advertising beacon to IoT hubs indicating that the IoT device is not connectable if the IoT device establishes a connection with a first IoT hub, the IoT hubs other than the first IoT hub to report the not connectable status of the IoT device to an IoT service; and a connection security module of the IoT service to determine whether the IoT device is connected to any known IoT hub upon receiving the not connectable status from one or more of the IoT hubs; wherein if the connection security module cannot identify a known IoT hub to which the IoT device is connected, then an alert condition is generated.

System and method for preventing security breaches in an internet of things (IoT) system

A system and method are described for performing service-initiated updates to IoT devices. For example, one embodiment of a system comprises: a plurality of IoT devices, each IoT device comprising: a storage device to store attributes and/or program code; a processor to execute the program code using the attributes to perform one or more specified functions of the IoT device, and attribute/code management circuitry and/or logic to manage a current state of the attributes and/or program code; an Internet of Things (IoT) cloud service to be communicatively coupled to IoT devices over the Internet, the IoT cloud service including an update service to initiate updates of the attributes and/or program code stored on the plurality of IoT devices, an IoT device to transmit a notification to the update service upon reaching a particular initialization state, the notification including an indication of a current attribute and/or program code state; the update service to responsively determine whether an update to the current attribute and/or program code state is available and, if so, to use a first key to generate a signature over a binary which includes the update to the attribute and/or program code state to generate a signed binary; the update service to further store the signed binary in a designated network location and to generate or retrieve a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying the network location, the update service to transmit an update command to the IoT device containing the URL; the attribute/code management circuitry and/or logic of the IoT device to interpret the URL to retrieve the signed binary, to use a second key to verify the signature, and to responsively update the attribute and/or program code in accordance with the binary.

System and method for service-initiated internet of things (IoT) device updates

System and method for preventing security breaches in an internet of things (IOT) system

A system and method are described for establishing secure communication channels. For example, one embodiment of a system includes an IoT device comprising secret/counter processing logic/circuitry to generate a master secret, the master secret to be transmitted to an IoT service. The system may include one or more IoT hubs to receive the master secret from the IoT service over a first secure communication channel. At least one of the IoT hubs can use the master secret to establish a second secure communication channel with the IoT device.

System and method for establishing secure communication channels with internet of things (IoT) devices

An IoT system and method for selecting a secondary communication channel. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: one or more primary communication interfaces to establish a connection between an Internet of Things (IoT) device and an IoT service over one or more primary communication channels; one or more secondary communication interfaces to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one or more secondary communication channels; a communication interface selection module to determine whether a primary threshold related to connection attempts over the one or more primary communication channels has been reached; in response to detecting that the primary threshold has been reached, the communication interface selection module to attempt to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one of the secondary communication channels; the secondary communication interface to exchange data between the IoT device and the IoT service over the secondary communication channel.

Internet of things (IoT) system and method for selecting a secondary communication channel

A system and method are described for implementing latched attributes within an IoT system. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: specifying an attribute for each of a plurality of items of data managed in an Internet of Things (IoT) device and/or an IoT service, at least some of the attributes comprising latched attributes having a current value and an indication of state changes to the latched attribute over a period of time; when an IoT device is unable to connect with the IoT service for a period of time maintaining an indication of any state changes occurring to the latched attribute over the period of time; upon establishing a successful connection between the IoT device and the IoT service after the period of time, transmitting the indication of state changes of the latched attribute from the IoT device to the IoT service; and analyzing the indication of state changes to determine whether to generate an alert condition on the IoT service.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Lucas Finkelstein