We are extremely excited to finally bring our encryption solution, originally built for professional usage in diverse niche markets (such as the space and drone industries) to a wider audience, including IoT developers and maker communities. Our solution is entirely made in Europe and, as you will know if you’ve been following our recent updates, has been tested and used by the European Space Agency (ESA). Hence, what you are getting when purchasing SKUDO Kryptor is a solid, well-tested, easy-to-use, plug-and-play module that takes advantage of our verifiable HSM soft-core – an entire Hardware Security Module, with the ability to perform various encryption functions, within a single FPGA chip.

What You Will Get When You Back our Campaign

When you purchase a SKUDO Kryptor board through our Crowd Supply campaign, it will include a valuable offer given only to our crowdfunding backers: a "voucher" that allows you to download our entire HSM soft-core suit (with support for Camellia symmetric encryption, ECDH, ECC25519, Skein, and the FIGARO TRNG) free of charge. We are excited to be able to give you access to this professional-grade encryption device for free!

In addition to loading our soft-core and using SKUDO Kryptor as a full HSM, you can also program the board’s MAX10 FPGA by uploading your own FPGA configuration file using our optional JTAG adapter. And of course, you can switch back and forth between your design and our HSM soft-core as often as you like. Every SKUDO Kryptor sold through this crowdfunding campaign will be pre-loaded with a special core capable of accepting the internal programming that loads our HSM soft-core through the SPI interface. That means you won’t need to use the JTAG adapter to activate your SKUDO Kryptor as an HSM. If you use the JTAG adapter to switch over to your own design, however, you will overwrite our core in the process. At that point, you will need to use our JTAG adapter and an FPGA programmer—both of which are available through this campaign—to restore the HSM soft-core, just as you would when programming any other MAX10 FPGA board.

And don’t worry, each backers will receive detailed instructions on how to download the HSM soft-core config file and how to upload it to their board. The config file itself—which will be customized to your specific FPGA hardware serial number—will be available at a dedicated URL on the https://skudo.tech website. It will be encrypted with a code that is unique to the MAX10 chip on your board, and only your board will be able to execute the copy of the HSM soft-core that you have obtained. That configuration file will not run on any other SKUDO Kryptor board.

For more specific information about the size and pin layout of SKUDO Kryptor, have a look at the PDF datasheet available for download from our website.

Our Work With the ESA

We would also like to provide some insight into the origin of SKUDO Kryptor and into the various ways in which we, as a company, have used it and the HSM soft-core that powers it.

In 2020, SKUDO signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop and demonstrate a special encryption solution that combines the CCSDS SDLS TC/TM data space protocols with a PKI, asymmetric cryptography functions, and our own FPGA-based HSM. The boards we are making available through this campaign are identical (aside from a different MAX10 model) to those we used for the ESA project. In addition, the entire HSM soft-core used for the ESA contract is derived from the one that we will provide to backers for free.

The video below describes the encryption solution we built for the ESA and clarifies how that solution works.

Regarding Component Availability

Finally, a few notes about the logistics of the electronic-component shortage that is affecting every project worldwide. We are constantly monitoring the situation, and the biggest risk we face, at the moment, has to do with the MAX10 FPGA chip at the core of SKUDO Kryptor. That chip currently has a six-to-eight week lead time. Our assembly facility is located in Europe, and we have been using it without issue to manufacture all of the prototypes and test units we’ve produced so far. As a result, we are confident we can assemble all SKUDO Kryptor PCBs quickly once the necessary components have arrived at the factory. Everything has been carefully planned out, and as soon as we reach our funding goal (even before the end of the campaign), we will begin reserving FPGA chips from our supplier. And if supply becomes available earlier than anticipated, we are fully prepared to begin fulfillment well ahead of the shipping estimates we have proposed. Rest assured that we will do our best to get every single board assembled, tested, programmed, and shipped—first from Europe to the USA, then from there to backers—as soon as possible. While working toward that ultimate goal, we will monitor the component shortage as it evolves and keep you informed, both during and after the campaign.

Our Crowd Supply campaign will be live for the following six weeks, ending on 28th September, 2021. During the campaign, we will provide valuable, in-depth tutorials that highlight the diverse set of projects in which SKUDO Kryptor and our HSM soft-core can be used. So be sure to register for updates!

Finally, you are very welcome to join us in our Telegram group or follow us @SkudoTech on Twitter to ask questions and stay in touch.