Security and Reliability Design for SSD in IoT Era

In this Everything is Connected IoT era, massive data generated from many kinds of internet connected devices. Which is also implying the security risk of IT system is much higher than before, even beyond our imagination. For example, in 2016, a team of hackers managed to take remote control of Tesla and manipulate the devices inside the car, even hit the brakes from 19 KM away. In 2017, a “white-hat hacker” sent out 150,000 print jobs in 24 hours which printed ASCII art. All these “innovative” internet attacks and the “creativities” from the hackers are really the warnings of our public safety, which could be exposed to risks because of the insufficient protection of IT devices. Although these cases are more about the safety of network connection and communication protocols, but storage medias in each layer of IoT structure which carry data and remain system operation, the reliability and security is even more critical. In this article, we will be discussing this topic from storage hardware reliability, data security, and application flexibility.

Great oaks from little acorns grow, reliable SSD is all about Flash
NAND Flash is widely adopted in IoT applications as storage device, which is the storage media that record the data with proper arrangement from storage controller IC. Hence, the selection of IC defined most of the reliability already. With the incremental usage of Flash IC in all kinds of the handheld devices and 3C products, the secondary market of this kind of the storage IC also emerged. All kinds of non-original package IC, even second hand IC are overwhelmed in the market already. However, no matter data collection or big data analysis in the cloud, the whole eco-system of IoT applications is about the value of data. If emphasizing too much on cost and apply Flash IC from secondary market, which risks the reliability of whole system and lowering the expected value of data.

Strict production quality control for excellent SSD product quality yield
In industrial applications, compare with consumer products, per batch quantity is much smaller, but higher chance to apply in mission critical applications, which means the quality control threshold should be different to maintain high quality standard and prevent disaster consequences from any quality issues. Hence, Advantech phased-in industrial leading QC standard to apply 100% product screening test instead of sampling QC. Every single piece of Advantech storage products shipped would be tested with 5 cycles of the read/write stress test, temperature test, thermal shock, and vibration test to ensure excellent yield rate of our product.

Security upgrade for SSD with SQFlash Utility
The cases mentioned in the beginning of the article about network communication security is indeed a very serious challenge, other than that, the people with bad intention has also lots of approaches to acquire data from the system in field side, or even on the storage device directly. As a carrier of data and applications, the variety of security features of storage devices could be very handy for the architects to design the system and raise the overall security level. Therefore, AES-256 internal encryption has become a mandatory feature for the modern SSD design. Besides, except for internal data encryption, with the implementation of unique device code verification or user authentication, a simple storage device can be empowered with software keys (SQFlash – Security ID) or data vault (SQFlash – Flash Vault) functions. Which realize peer-to-peer security protection.

Complete power failure protection of SQFlash
Fundamental to SSD reliability is how SSDs perform data management, especially in unstable power scenarios. SQFlash designed with the most advanced and complete multi-stage power
failure protection that ensures that no matter which kind of scenario, you will be fully covered by our advanced product functions. The multi-stage power failure protection of SQFlash is built into the SSD building blocks. From the core storage area of the Flash IC, the Power Failure Saver feature ensures data integrity. SQFlash also features Power Drop Catcher to handle glitches from voltage drops, and Flush Manager to ensure all valid data is safely stored in the Flash IC. The SSD can be optionally built with a Voltage Stabilizer to provide a stable operating environment for SSD components in case of serious power fluctuations.

Flexible design of storage to cope with variety of IoT applications
Various application scenario is one of the characteristics of IoT application, which requests diversified product specification and design flexibility. On the other hand, storage product need to be adopted in extreme temperature and humidity environments, fluctuated power supply, indoor/outdoor, different operation system, or various read / write behaviors… etc. Storage devices need to be designed for accommodating in these scenarios and support flexible and fast adjustment. Durability and performance are both factors that are mostly concerned, but in different application, the setting and trade-off of both factors could be in total opposite. Which again reveals the importance of manageability and flexibility of the storage products. Also, proper simulation conditions from the architects that familiar with the context of application is always helpful to make efficient decisions on choosing suitable storage products.
Advantech industrial storage solution – SQFlash has built-in abundant management tool for applying to various of IoT and embedded applications. SQFlash with controller IC supports internal AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) enables high standard security that prevents hackers to read data even directly from Flash IC. Further, a complete package of SQFlash Utility AP and API provides advanced security features like Security ID, Write Protection, and Emergency Erase provides excellent conveniences for system integrators to design intelligent systems with complete security total solution. For special requirements, Advantech SQFlash DTOS (design-to-order-service) also supports hardware / firmware / software design to fit customer’s unique applications.
Storage product is just like a human brain in a system, which stores all kinds of important data and the process / application that remains the system in normal application, the stability and security of storage is the key.