Security for the Smart Home: Infineon teams up with Chinese appliance manufacturers for solutions

Secured Smart Home Appliances in China: In the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) unauthorized access has to be prevented. Together with partnersInfineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) today founded the „Open Laboratory for Smart Home Interconnection Security“ in Beijing. Infineon is the only non-Chinese company among the founding members which include Midea, Huawei Consumer BG, Tencent and CESI, the China Electronics Standardization Institute supervised by the Ministry of industry and information technology. The partners are aiming at jointly developing security technologies for smart home appliances that are manufactured and used in China.

“The joint project underlines our competence in the development of security solutions for the connected world,” said Helmut Gassel, member of the management board of Infineon Technologies. “We are very pleased to team up with Chinese partners to set up the ‘Open Laboratory for Smart Home Interconnection Security’. Together, we want to develop standards to better protect connected smart home appliances that are increasingly part of the Internet of Things. The joint lab is a major step forward in increasing consumers’ privacy.”

Smart devices and home appliances are the building blocks of a smart home. They range from basic sensors used in refrigerators or lighting to powerful computing devices with a full operating system and user interface such as smart home gateways, controls or entertainment systems. Every smart device can be connected to the internet using an IP address. Unsecured, this makes them vulnerable to attacks.

China is the fastest growing market for smart home appliances. Researchers forecast an exponential growth potential for smart home appliances at an annual growth rate of 97 percent between 2016 and 2020. Shipments of smart home appliances are expected to grow from 15 million units to 223 million units in the same timeframe (IHS Markit 2016).

Infineon makes the Internet of Things (IoT) smart, secure and power efficient. Sensors, controllers, power components and security solutions are the building blocks for all major IoT applications from connected cars to industrial or smart home applications. We help our customers to create sustainable IoT success with benchmarking semiconductor technologies and our system understanding of the automotive, energy and security markets. Further information is available at: www.infineon.com/iot and www.infineon.com/iot-security.