WISeKey to launch 'IoT Blockchain Center' in Crypto Valley
Swiss cybersecurity company WISeKey is to establish a centre of excellence for the internet of things and blockchain in Zug, a canton in Switzerland that is home to major blockchain and bitcoin companies, including the Ethereum Foundation. WISeKey will work with start-ups, fintech incubation firms and government authorities working on "deeptech" technologies to build proof of concepts, policies and educational materials addressing the capabilities of distributed ledger technologies. It will also explore using artificial intelligence to improve cybersecurity. Zug has become known as Crypto Valley because of its popularity with digital currency start-ups.
WISeKey International Holding Ltd (WIHN.SW), a leading Swiss cybersecurity and Blockchain IoT company announced today its intention to establish an IoT Blockchain Center of Excellence Center in the Canton of Zug aiming to deploy a Trusted Blockchain as a Service platform. The Center will offer a Blockchain Platform to US based enterprises, facilitating the rapid adaptation of on-board Blockchain based solutions and services.

The Canton of Zug is a region of Switzerland that is gradually attracting major crypto technology players and has become known as Crypto Valley. Several major Blockchain and bitcoin companies are located in Zug such as the Ethereum Foundation using the swiss experience on fintech and cybersecurity.

WISekey, a Swiss listed company with headquarters in Zug and operational centers in St. Gallen and Geneva, and connected to a network of centers and offices located in Taiwan, Argentina, USA, France, Germany, UK and Japan, will be cooperating with Zug’s startup enterprises, fintech incubation firms, and governmental authorities all working on DeepTech technologies, on building points of view, proof of concepts, policies, educational materials including addressing all the distributed ledger capabilities across different Blockchain schemes (public, consortium and private), with industry verticalization and domain specialization (IoT, transactions, messaging, etc.), underpinned by the best underlying technologies from startups, our key partners and from the community.

At the heart of this localization at the Crypto Valley is the OISTE-WISeKey Cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) which has been actively used since 1999 by over 2.6 billion desktops, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and IoT devices. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic RoT is ubiquitous and universal, and a pioneer in the creation of Digital Identities. This technology is required to integrate the OISTE/WISeKey RoT into IoT embedded devices with problem-solving AI solutions, said the company who sees its patent portfolio and intellectual property as key to ensuring that the company will be a major player in the “DeepTech” for years to come. WISeKey focuses on integrating unique technology that is differentiated, protected and hard to reproduce based on tangible scientific discoveries or engineering innovations.

WISeKey Vertical Platform aims tame the ” wildly insecure” IoT market by organizing itself into trusted networks based on mutual authentication, identity and integrity. This trusted cybersecurity platform will only enable IoT devices that provide a recognized identity and a valid integrity report to communicate with peer devices that are part of the trusted community.

In addition, WISeKey is adding AI at the chip level and together with the WISeKey RoT it will allow IoT to provide authenticated sensor data. Current IoT data does not provide value for their manufacturers unless it can be converted into actionable, contextualized information generated by IoT sensors fully identifiable, according to WISeKey. The majority of IoT devices are not built with embedded secured systems thus are very vulnerable. By integrating AI into the WISekey RoT and Vertical Platform, objects can develop their own cybersecurity behavior, thus making smarter and safer decisions. IoT objects with this technology will learn from attacks, defend them and transfer this intelligence via the WISekey Vertical Platform to other IoT objects peer to peer using a Blockchain.

Furthermore, WISeKey will include an AI solution at the integrated circuits allowing AI to be hosted on a hardware vault with the highest level of certification able to encrypt communications and authenticate the device which aims to allow AI to leverage the “big data” generated by the deployment of WISeKey’s RoT now embedded in more than 2.5 billion devices worldwide benefitting from the strong cryptographic capabilities deployed in all sorts of IoT products.