Infineon packages protection from product piracy and IP plunder
Industrial automation, medical equipment, electronic components – plagiarism of capital equipment requires effective prevention, according to Infineon Technologies which is offering embedded security solutions, that extend to systems connected by the emerging USB 3 Type C standard.
OPTIGA Trust E offers a solution to protect manufacturers’ valuable IP from being attacked, analysed, copied and modified. Enhanced authentication as well as secured storage of software codes and product data improve network and supply chain management – particularly in the context of Industry 4.0. Manufacturers of high-value goods can safeguard their IP and protect their brand through assured quality and safety of their products.
Research for built-in copy protection has also been conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) in Garching, Germany. “Most companies have no idea just how easy it is to copy their products,” says Bartol Filipovic, head of the Product Protection and Industrial Security department at the Fraunhofer Institute. “Encrypted software is not enough to protect standard products or machine codes. The software codes must be ideally stored in protected hardware.”
Smart security features provided by the OPTIGA Trust E enable tracking of the source of spare parts. This benefits manufacturers of equipment such as wind mills, for example, who want to control after-sales markets of the installed systems or components in order to avoid damage and warranty claims caused by unqualified service or fake parts. The security technology is already integrated into Infineon’s MIPAQ Pro intelligent power module: the first implementation has been carried out at an international windmill manufacturer.
OPTIGA Trust E comes with an advanced pre-programmed security controller built on Elliptic Curve Cryptography greatly enhancing overall system security. The easy-to-integrate, cost effective “out of the box” solution features key and certificate management and includes operating software. It comes with complete system integration support. The extended temperature range of -40 to +85 °C combined with a standardized I²C interface and small USON-10 footprint allows integration into a variety of embedded projects. Beyond that, it supports authentication of products that rely on the new USB Type-C standard.
IP protection is also a major issue for increasingly connected industrial systems. Infineon has developed a range of semiconductor technologies to counter growing security threats. The OPTIGA product family for embedded security includes components from authentication solutions (OPTIGA Trust) to advanced implementations (OPTIGA TPM) protecting integrity, authenticity and confidentiality of information to enable security in the Internet of Things (IoT).
