Secure cross-device application platform for consumer electronics and automotive using open-source PKI technology
One secure web platform across phones, cars, TVs and things.
The Challenge
By 2010 consumers owned a fast-growing spectrum of connected devices — mobiles, PCs, TVs and in-car units — but applications and services were locked to single platforms. Device manufacturers and operators had no common, secure way to let one application run and share data consistently across all of a user’s devices, and security and privacy were afterthoughts rather than a quality-of-service expectation.
The Solution
Webinos was a large-scale international collaborative research project — coordinated by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft/FOKUS with ~22 partners including Sony, Samsung, BMW, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica — that defined and delivered an open-source platform enabling web applications and services to be used and shared consistently and securely across mobile, PC, home media (TV) and in-car devices — a “single service for every device” vision. NQM played a leading role, with Nick Allott serving as a Director of the webinos Open Source Foundation. The platform built a secure foundation for cross-device IoT/web interaction based on PKI, fine-grained distributed policy and (in NQM framing) self-sovereign identity principles.
Outcomes
The project delivered royalty-free specifications and Apache 2.0 reference implementations across Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Raspberry Pi and Arduino. In a 2015 peer-reviewed University of Portsmouth review of 22 IoT middleware frameworks, webinos was rated the most advanced approach to security and privacy. The webinos architecture and open-source code base became the technical and conceptual basis for later NquiringMinds products, including UbiApps and NQM’s trusted-data platform line.
Features
Open-source cross-device web application platform spanning mobile, PC, TV and in-car units.
PKI-backed device identity and secure "personal zone" architecture for a user's device collection.
Fine-grained, user-controlled cross-device security and privacy policy.
Royalty-free specifications plus Apache 2.0 reference implementations on six OS/hardware targets.
Independently rated the most advanced security approach among 22 IoT middleware frameworks.
Benefits
A secure-IoT open-source collaboration including W3C, Sony, Samsung, BMW, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and ~20 other international organisations.
Independent peer-reviewed review (University of Portsmouth, 2015) of 22 IoT middleware frameworks concluded webinos was the most advanced approach to security and privacy.
Royalty-free standards and Apache 2.0 reference implementations delivered across Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Served as the technical and conceptual basis for later NQM products (UbiApps and the trusted-data platform line).
Volt features used
distributed design on open identity standards
distributed policy definition & enforcement — NQM's core innovation
federated access and authorisation across organisational boundaries
open standards and open source, by commitment
lightweight; embedded Pi or smaller
true end-to-end encryption, peer-to-peer, no intermediate server
advanced NIST compliant security
interoperable core
Working with
BMW
BMW's research arm partnered in the EU FP7 Webinos project — the automotive example user of the secure cross-device platform.
Samsung
Samsung Electronics (UK) partnered in the EU FP7 Webinos project — an example device-manufacturer user of the secure cross-device platform.
Sony
Sony Mobile Communications partnered in the EU FP7 Webinos project — an example device-manufacturer user of the secure cross-device platform.
