Mouser Electronics has announced a new e-book in collaboration with Microchip Technology: Designing for the Cyber Resilience Act: Securing Connected Devices from First Schematic to Final Decommissioning.
As connected products become more widely used across industrial, consumer, infrastructure, and IoT applications, cybersecurity must be addressed throughout the product lifecycle. From December 2027, products with digital elements – including hardware or software with direct or indirect connections to other devices or networks – must meet the European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) essential cybersecurity requirements before they can carry CE marking and be placed on the EU market. The regulation therefore makes cybersecurity a market-access consideration alongside established product requirements.
The new e-book follows a connected product through its complete security lifecycle. Featuring insights from Tim Scherer, Senior Embedded Solutions Engineer for Cyber Resilience at Microchip Technology, it examines CRA scope, deadlines, and standards; the design decisions that establish a security architecture; prototype validation; production-scale provisioning; and the management of device identities, credentials and updates during field operation through to secure end of life.
Key topics covered in the e-book include:
- Determining whether a product falls within CRA scope; conducting a risk assessment based on its intended use, data and connections; and applying secure-by-design and secure-by-default principles
- Establishing the core building blocks of device security: a trusted boot chain, firmware integrity, key protection and, where required, encryption of sensitive data
- Selecting a hardware root of trust, including secure elements that generate and protect private keys and enable cryptographic operations
- Prototyping with pre-provisioned device identities, then planning secure key and certificate provisioning at manufacturing scale
- Supporting secure onboarding, authenticated firmware updates, credential rotation, vulnerability management and secure decommissioning across the product lifecycle
The e-book also explores the practical choices involved in implementing these capabilities, including the use of Microchip’s ATECC608C secure element, the DM320118 CryptoAuth Trust Platform development board, and the EV89U05A CryptoAuth Pro Trust Platform. The Trust Platform Design Suite, TrustMANAGER managed provisioning service and keySTREAM connectivity framework, available with registration on Microchip’s website, offer an end-to-end approach to IoT security, simplifying key and certificate management as well as FOTA updates for ATECC608 based designs.
By connecting CRA obligations with the engineering mechanisms used to address them, the eBook gives design teams a practical framework for building cybersecurity into connected-product development from the outset.
To download Designing for the Cyber Resilience Act, visit https://resources.mouser.com/manufacturer-ebooks/microchip-designing-for-the-cyber-resilience-act/.
