As the adoption of IoT and IIoT technologies continues to grow—especially at the edge of industrial networks—security is becoming a critical concern. The growing number of connected devices significantly increases exposure to cyber attacks. Edge devices operate in open and dynamic environments compared to traditional IT infrastructure, processing large amounts of data and often interacting directly with the physical world. This makes edge nodes both strategic and vulnerable in any IoT architecture.

Why edge security matters

In many industrial scenarios, edge devices are deployed with little or no security in place. This creates a substantial risk: every connected sensor or device can become a potential access point. A breach at this level can affect not only data, but also physical infrastructure and safety-critical processes.

A dual-layer protection built into Meteca’s MBC modules

To address these challenges, Meteca implements a hardware-based security model in the MBC-WB01 module. This design integrates two protection layers: the built-in security of the ESP32 chip and the secure element Microchip ATECC608A.

ESP32: secure boot and encryption

The ESP32 includes:

• secure boot with signature verification,
• flash encryption to protect stored firmware,
• hardware-accelerated cryptography (AES, SHA-2, RSA, ECC, RNG).

Together, these features establish a chain of trust from hardware to application, ensuring that only signed and verified code can run

ATECC608A: secure key storage and authentication

The second layer, the ATECC608A, adds:

• ECDSA authentication (elliptic curve digital signature algorithm),
• ECDH key exchange (elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman),
• AES acceleration.

This secure element provides physically protected key storage and hardware countermeasures against typical software attack vectors. It also supports TLS 1.3 and is compatible with major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, making secure cloud authentication easier and faster.

Towards NIS 2 compliance

Meteca is actively working to ensure that all of its products will be fully compliant with the upcoming NIS 2 directive, strengthening our commitment to secure and resilient IoT infrastructure.

Contact us to find out how our IoT solutions.