Global Technology Partnerships Serve the Greater Good

BSA | The Software Alliance, a leading advocate for the global software industry, recently announced its U.S 2018 policy agenda. The agenda focuses on four main policy areas: data, intellectual property, workforce development, and emerging technologies.

In the realm of cybersecurity, BSA promotes endeavors to improve the government’s capabilities and readiness to address cybersecurity threats. BSA supports a robust partnership of government and industry to:

• Promote a secure software ecosystem through industry benchmarks, enhanced tools, research and vulnerability disclosure
• Strengthen government’s approach to cybersecurity
• Build international consensus on cybersecurity policies, standards, and practices
• Develop a 21st century cybersecurity workforce
• Embrace digital transformation by leveraging emerging technologies and forging innovative partnerships

At Wibu-Systems, we wholeheartedly support BSA’s agenda in building partnerships with government, particularly in developing international consensus on cybersecurity best practices, leveraging emerging technologies and forging innovative solutions. Beyond joint research activities with the government, we also believe that technology partnerships between industry participants directly or through industry associations can serve to dramatically speed the development of innovative technology solutions for the common good of the global industrial ecosystem.  

For example, the members of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), an organization dedicated to setting the standards, best practices and processes of the Industrial Internet, have worked tirelessly to develop best practices, technical guidance, and testbeds for the emergence of the industrial Internet of Things. To assess cybersecurity issues that represent a major threat to world safety and security, Wibu-Systems contributed its security expertise in the development of the Industrial Internet Security Framework (IISF), an in-depth cross-industry-focused security document comprising expert vision, experience and security best practices. It reflects thousands of hours of knowledge and experiences from security experts, collected, researched and evaluated for the benefit of all IIoT system deployments.

As a member of the Infineon Security Partner Network (ISPN), Wibu-Systems joins a selected group of security experts whose mission is to make proven semiconductor-based security easily accessible to the growing number of manufacturers of connected devices and systems. Wibu-Systems has powered its entire CodeMeter hardware product line with Infineon’s SLE 97 security controllers, crucial components for the data security and system integrity of computers and embedded systems in smart factories. Additionally, Wibu-Systems has successfully integrated the Embedded variant of CodeMeter with Infineon’s XMC 4500 industrial microcontroller family. As a result of this cooperation, software developers of field programmable gate arrays and microcontrollers can now protect application code and intellectual property against reverse engineering and implement a license control system.

Wibu-Systems is also an active member of the OPC Foundation, an organization dedicated to  providing security standards for authentication and secure encrypted M2M communications. The OPC UA standard clearly defines the secure authentication of networked control systems. Wibu-Systems’ CodeMeter technology supports the Unified Architecture protocol and provides security extensions and license management via OPC UA. The benefit of this support for the OPC UA standard was demonstrated during the Hannover Messe tradeshow in 2017. Wibu-Systems was one of 18 partner companies who contributed to a live demonstration of a flexible robotic transport system that used RFID tag descriptions in accordance with the ISO 15693 standard, OPC UA protocol, and a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to ensure the highest level of standardization in hardware and communication. Wibu-Systems was able to address the security aspect of the demonstration.

These are just a few examples of the power of joint partnerships with the government, industry associations and technology companies that benefit the global industrial community. There surely will be more to come.