THE CIRCLE OF TRUST FOR CONNECTED DEVICES

When it comes to connected devices, how big should your “Circle of Trust” be?  Who should you trust, and why?

As told by Jack Byrnes (“Meet the Parents”), who should you trust and why?

When I hear people reference “connected” devices, trust management is always part of that discussion.  The questions I ask; How do I know which device is part of that system? What device am I talking to?  Can I trust that “Device A” is who they claim to be?  Is there a way for me to verify “Device A?”   One very good way to answer these questions is to have an authoritative intermediary that knows and is trusted by both parties (and systems).  I have been struggling to figure out how to explain these answers until one night I was watching “Meet the Parents” and a light bulb popped up above my head.  I said, “Of course, who knows better about trusting people or things than Robert De Niro!”  Unknowingly, Jack Byrnes was explaining a few of the tenets of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and what we consider Root of Trust (RoT).  After that, the movie took on a life of its own.  I felt like I was attending a presentation by Whitfield Diffie at the RSA conference on public key cryptography.