Macnica and DigiCert provide Matter PKI for India's first Panasonic room air conditioner equipped with Matter, a common smart home standard

Macnica (headquarters: Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture; Representative Director and President: Kazumasa Hara; hereinafter referred to as Macnica) and DigiCert Japan, LLC (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Japan Country Manager: Yoshimasa Hiraiwa; hereinafter referred to as DigiCert) announced today that they have provided Matter PKI *2 to India's first room air conditioner equipped with the smart home common standard Matter ^​*1​^​, manufactured by Panasonic Life Solutions India Private Limited (headquarters: Thane, Maharashtra, Republic of India; hereinafter referred to as Panasonic), a global leader in home appliances and part of the Panasonic Group.

As a common standard that enables seamless compatibility and secure connectivity between IoT devices in a smart home, Matter provides the foundation for a smart home ecosystem where IoT devices from different manufacturers can easily work together and We offer a new smart home experience that is highly convenient. To establish a secure connection with Matter, device certificates based on the security policy established by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) are utilized, and each Matter-compatible product has a unique digital certificate. only communicate with safe parties. Therefore, Matter requires the use of digital certificates for each IoT device to ensure a secure smart home.

Therefore, we have provided DigiCert's Matter PKI to India's first room air conditioner equipped with Panasonic's Matter smart home common standard. DigiCert, the world's largest provider of digital certificates, has been selected by CSA as the world's first Matter Root Certification Authority, and leverages its professional experience and knowledge based on its experience in the certificate business to achieve wide adoption worldwide. We provided support with high security and support capabilities backed by. Macnica leveraged its knowledge in the IoT and IT fields to support the consideration and implementation of Matter's digital certificate, which is ideal for production factories and the Panasonic Group.

These enable Panasonic's room air conditioners to be seamlessly integrated into the Matter ecosystem, allowing users to control and monitor their room air conditioners from Matter-enabled devices such as smart speakers, smartphones, and tablets. Panasonic's room air conditioner series equipped with the Matter protocol will be on sale from February 2024, just before the summer season, at all major retailers and e-commerce platforms in India.

Figure: Image photo of a room air conditioner equipped with Matter (Source: Panasonic)

Manish Misra, Chief Innovation Officer, Panasonic Life Solutions India, said: “In addition to the Matter standard, which emphasizes security, we have significantly improved the security of Panasonic's room air conditioners by adopting the latest solutions from DigiCert, the world's largest provider of digital certificates. Customers can use the convenient and integrated living experience provided by Panasonic with peace of mind. Panasonic, which manufactures not only room air conditioners but also refrigerators, washing machines, and other appliances at factories spread all over the world, has a high price tag. We chose DigiCert's solution because it provided a solution that was both secure and scalable. DigiCert's highly reliable solution enabled us to ramp up production smoothly and without any trouble. Our room air conditioner products have received high praise from the market, and we are steadily increasing production."

Panasonic plans to continue to utilize DigiCert's Matter PKI, which has high security and scalability, to gradually expand its Matter-compatible product models.
Macnica will continue to support Panasonic's expansion of Matter-compatible products into the market. In addition to the multiple semiconductor manufacturers related to Matter that Macnica handles, by providing DigiCert digital certificates required for Matter, we will be able to provide support for a wide range of smart home related fields including room air conditioners. We will support Japanese companies to accelerate the release of Matter products.
DigiCert continues to develop various solutions for the manufacturing industry, including Matter, and provides services that can flexibly respond to the diverse security requirements of each country, region, and industry.

*1: A new common IoT standard for smart homes developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which includes over 500 companies including Apple, Google, and Amazon. By making smart home appliances from different manufacturers compatible, it enables seamless device integration and centralized control, contributing to further improvements in the convenience of smart homes.

*2: PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) is widely used in the world of Internet communications for the purpose of using electronic certificates and establishing secure communications and connections based on trust using public key cryptography and digital signatures. At Matter, in order to realize a smart home with high security and interoperability, CSA sets policies and PKI technology using device certificates is utilized.

*Company names and product names mentioned in the text are trademarks or registered trademarks of each company.
*The information published in the news release (including product price, specifications, etc.) is current as of the date of announcement. Please note that the information may be subject to change without prior notice.