Industrial automation, medical equipment, electronic components - plagiarism of capital equipment requires effective prevention, such as embedded security solutions from Infineon Technologies AG.

According to the OECD, counterfeiting and piracy costs add up to around 638 billion US dollars annually. The new OPTIGA Trust E offers an easily implementable 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. And help manufacturers of high value goods to safeguard their IP and protect their brand through assured quality and safety of their products.

Research for built-in copy protection is also 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."

Thanks to the smart security features provided by the OPTIGA Trust E, it is also possible to track the source of spare parts. This benefits manufacturers of 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 the intelligent power module MIPAQ Pro from Infineon. First implementation has been realised at an international wind mill manufacturer.

The OPTIGA Trust E comes with an advanced pre-programmed security controller built on Elliptic Curve Cryptography greatly enhancing overall system security. Furthermore, the easy-to-integrate, cost effective "out of the box" solution features key and certificate management and includes operating software. Moreover, it comes with complete system integration support.

The extended temperature range of -40 to +85 °C combined with a standardised 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 broad range of easy-to-deploy semiconductor technologies to counter growing security threats.

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