KNX IP Secure accepted as ISO standard

KNX IP Secure has recently been recognised as an international security standard for smart buildings, designated EN ISO 22510.

KNX is already known internationally as a technical standard in the smart home and building sector. Since the adoption of the KNX standard as ISO/IEC 14543-3 in 2006 and the release of the Australian and New Zealand Technical Specification SA/SNZ TS ISO/IEC 14543.3 in 2017, the global recognition and acceptance of KNX as an open protocol for smart buildings has achieved substantial growth year on year.

The new ISO standard based on KNX IP Secure was published at the end of November 2019 and was created specifically to cover open data communication for building automation and building management via KNX/IP. With the growing awareness of cyber threats that smart buildings can be exposed to and the resulting increase in security requirements for building automation, this latest ISO standard highlights the role of KNX as a global technology leader.

Since 2006, the KNX technical standard has been a forerunner in top global and regional standardisation for building automation. During the development of KNX, security has always been a top priority, to the point where experts still considered the standard to be very secure.

“With the ongoing progress in intelligent networking of buildings and infrastructure, including trending topics such as sector coupling, smart grids, etc, there is a constantly growing number of data-driven use cases in KNX projects that rely on very sensitive data and require particularly high levels of security. This is exactly where we start with KNX Secure, in which we expand our already very secure standard with additional security mechanisms to meet the highest IT security demand,” said Franz Kammerl, President of the International KNX Association.

KNX Secure provides double protection, effectively preventing attacks on smart buildings. Created in 2015, KNX Secure is based on international security algorithms standardised in accordance with ISO 18033-3 and uses recognised encryption in accordance with AES 128 CCM. It protects the IP communication between the KNX installations by extending the IP protocol in such a way that all transferred telegrams and data are completely encrypted. At the same time, KNX Data Secure effectively protects user data, including data exchanged with the various terminals, against unauthorised access and manipulation by means of encryption and authentication. Both mechanisms can be combined and used in parallel to achieve maximum security for smart buildings.

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