SPS IPC Drives Italia: Wibu-Systems continues to champion digital security in industrial automation

Karlsruhe, Germany – Wibu-Systems, the international pioneer for the protection of software, firmware and confidential data, returns to SPS IPC Drives Italia in Parma between 28 and 30 May 2019. Its booth forms part of District 4.0, the special concourse of exhibitors highlighting the potential of the digital transformation in manufacturing. Visitors to booth A002, hall 7 can discover the many new hardware and software solutions launched throughout the year to round off an already rich portfolio designed to facilitate the business of automation, robotics, and mechatronics enterprises.

The showstopper innovation is Wibu-Systems’ entry into the cloud with an independent, fully mature, secure, and highly performing architecture for the management of software licenses entirely in the cloud. The all-new CodeMeter Cloud of Wibu-Systems complements CodeMeter Cloud Lite to seize the potential of the cloud for industrial actors increasingly interested in freeing themselves from the constraints of software or hardware-based licenses. Licenses that are protected with CodeMeter Protection Suite are created, distributed, and managed with CodeMeter License Central, but they now reside on CodeMeter Cloud Server in special containers, the CmCloudContainers, each securely assigned to a specific user.

The future is digital, but hardware is still king in the present. The line-up of hardware secure elements made by Wibu-Systems has grown to include two completely new families of protection devices, housed in elegant, robust, and customizable metal cases. Both series include three new models, equipped either with MLC or pseudoSLC flash memory or no additional memory. The “B” series with regular USB connectors has already gone on to win this year’s iF Design Award, while the “D” series is made with the newest wave of embedded and mobile devices equipped with USB type C connectors in mind.

The smart industry can also benefit from CodeMeter Keyring, the password and entitlement manager and password provider working as the interface between the popular CodeMeter technology and IDE applications like Siemens’ TIA Portal or Rockwell Automation’s Studio 5000 Logix Designer. With the granular management of user profiles and access, IP is safely protected in executable form and at runtime.

The attendees have a chance to explore the issue further in a dedicated workshop on the “Secure Key Storage and Key Enrollment in Industrial Environments”, hosted by Wibu-Systems in the Digital & Software Arena on 28 May (11:30 am to 12:30 pm). Ruediger Kuegler, VP Sales and security expert of Wibu-Systems, will be on hand to share how CodeMeter generates and stores cryptographic keys and digital certificates securely on computers and PLCs to enable trustworthy M2M communications. The solution scales easily from a resource-friendly software option to a more sophisticated approach using hardware secure elements, as a versatile choice for license and entitlement management.

At SPS IPC Drives Italia, Wibu-Systems will also highlight the potential of CodeMeter Certificate Vault, the PKCS#11-compatible token provider designed to streamline the reliable management of identities, digital signatures, emails, or VPNs with its perfect integration of CNG, Microsoft’s next-generation cryptographic API, and OpenSSL API. The strong authentication system relies on Wibu-Systems’ CmDongle license container with integrated smart card chip. It’s right there, in the secure environment of this special hardware device, be it a USB dongle, a secure memory card, or an ASIC, that files are decrypted, and certificates are made ready for use. The user can also entrust the entire operation to their own certification authority.

Daniela Previtali, Wibu-Systems’ Global Marketing Director and Business Developer in Italy, sees great promise for the connected industry: “Production surpluses we are used to will be a thing of the past. The new society we are building leaves no place for alienating jobs. Production processes will constantly be remodeled, following the data collected in the field in real time. AI has finally arrived in genuinely convincing and intriguing applications – but we need to be awake to the risks of a world that has gone digital. Cyber-security deserves to be at the forefront of our minds at this historical moment.”