Matter standards set to play big role across all IoT industries

The smart device interoperability standard, Matter, is ready to elevate the smart home industry later this year. But with its robust approach to device security, consumers and organisations alike should expect it to make a mark on commercial IoT soon.

The smart devices era to date has been a mixed experience for most who have taken the leap. Wonderful when it works, but a minefield if you want to use devices from different manufacturers together effectively. That’s all about to change, and it has positive implications for the IoT industry far beyond the domain of the smart home.

As a part of the Connectivity Standards Alliance and its effort to build the Matter interoperability standard since its inception in 2019, we have watched an impressive collaboration take place. Achieving alignment and consensus amongst 300 participants offering input into a new standard is a rare feat. But it’s a testament to the underlying mission of Matter to bring the industry together and create a more seamless and secure user experience.

It’s been clear to all involved that we must make smart home devices easier to use. Through Matter, we can give confidence to consumers that they can take a device home and it will work with their other Matter-compliant devices. But it’s also designed to let them know they can trust these devices with their data — a big step in unlocking the full potential for interoperability across cameras, voice assistants, door locks, sensors and beyond.

We’ve all heard stories of the early days when security was an afterthought… or not even that. Baby cameras easily accessed from anywhere by anyone, smart locks that could be triggered to open by shouting to a voice assistant from outside the house and plenty more. These issues have been patched or closed as they emerge, but they all point to the importance of a foundational layer to ensure security fundamentals are in place.

Within the CSA, DigiCert’s role has been focused on the Device Attestation Working Group, a group defining the protocols for device authentication and the Roots of Trust system. Importantly, this assures all devices are authentic and derive from trusted manufacturers. With a robust trust system in place, Matter ensures devices are made by who they say they are and that communication can be performed securely between compliant Matter devices.

Matter represents a real maturation of not only the smart home device industry but marks a milestone in the future of interoperability and security for all IoT. It opens new frontiers for device manufacturers, to think beyond their own borders and consider the potential of all these new external connections that become available. It presents new opportunities for interactions and data feeds that enable new features with the knowledge that the required security is now firmly in place.

Applying Matter to industrial and commercial settings will take a little longer, but it will come faster than many think. We are already discussing applications in smart commercial buildings and smart healthcare systems. Any ecosystem where different devices from different manufacturers need to seamlessly work together is an opportunity for the Matter specification to solve basic interoperability concerns and set a higher bar for security than exists today.

Roots of trust, device attestation, identity, establishing validated connections — all these elements are essential to any IoT environment, and all taken care of within the Matter standard. There will be custom requirements, of course, in any given industrial deployment, as IT specialists want devices to stand up in varied ways. But while implementation and environmental considerations are managed by IT teams, having Matter as part of the device enables seamless interoperability, secure communications, validated connections and identity and removes a great deal of existing pain.

Think of a hospital environment, for example. Many are zero trust and refuse outside connections. Matter deployment needs to understand specifics to manage healthcare complexities. But think of how many different devices from different manufacturers are in one hospital? Medical doctors and staff need immediate access to the data, but all these devices communicate differently, creating challenges for administrators to gather and connect that data, let alone in a fast-paced environment. Put Matter in there, and it will make it easy for admins to gather and use that data in a controlled and secure way.

It’s exciting to prepare for the launch of smart home products featuring the Matter label in coming months, and the DigiCert team is well prepared to tackle the first wave of the rollout. We will be issuing certificates to manufacturers and their devices ahead of what should be a busy holiday season, and over the coming years we expect to issue millions of device attestation certificates as Matter becomes the industry norm.

We participate in many industry standards — from emergency services and EV charging to cable standards, and more. We’ve been impressed with what the CSA has achieved with Matter and how effective its unification process has been.

Our technology is ready to support manufacturers when the gates open, and the certifications begin to flow. From there, a new era in IoT begins. We can’t wait.

Image credit: iStock.com/NatalyaBurova