Wibu-Systems at Embedded World 2023: A symphony of security and monetization solutions for the embedded community

Embedded World, one of the premier expos dedicated to embedded technology, is returning to Nuremberg for its 21^st anniversary edition, and Wibu-Systems, the protection, licensing, and security specialists from Karlsruhe, will be on site from 14 to 16 March as part of the shared OSADL exhibit (Hall 4 / Booth 168). Wibu-Systems’ highlights for the show include embedded, cloud, authentication, and mass storage technologies.

Whether on site or at one of the many digital events accompanying Embedded World, the expo is sure to attract many embedded technology enthusiasts and digital industry evangelists. For this year’s show, Wibu-Systems will present a selection of its technologies for the embedded community in the booth of OSADL, the Open Source Automation Development Lab. As a Bronze Member of the competence network for open source software in industrial products, Wibu-Systems will be among a crowd of likeminded professionals and innovative companies pushing the envelope for a new digital industry.

CodeMeter Embedded is Wibu-Systems’ most prominent contribution to the embedded world. Designed to work with the limited computing and memory resources of typical embedded systems like industrial controllers, CmEmbedded is a dedicated library that packs the encryption and licensing capabilities of CodeMeter in a leaner package. With the CodeMeter Embedded Core API providing the core functionality and with support for most licensing models in software or CmDongle hardware containers, CmEmbedded is the go-to tool for the makers of embedded software when it comes to protecting, licensing, and monetizing their work, including the commercially attractive ability to license individual machine features separately or sell subscription licenses. Its even leaner cousin, CodeMeter µEmbedded, is slimmed down for the most resource-conscious applications using CmActLicense containers.

Visitors to Embedded World include many industry outfitters and industrial automation engineers who will also be interested in the second exhibit brought to the show by Wibu-Systems: CmCloud. The cloud-based license containers and licensing system bring another tool to the arsenal for a smart and secure industrial IT landscape. Combining the mobility and versatility of software containers with a level of security on par with CmDongles, CmCloud is the perfect choice for modern, connected industry where service technicians need to access their licenses anywhere, anytime. Furthermore, CmCloud containers are enabled with CodeMoving, one of CodeMeter’s unique features that allows particularly sensitive code to be executed in the secure environs of the license container itself.

One of two additional exhibits will be CodeMeter Certificate Vault, the Wibu-Systems’ solution that brings the ease-of-use and security familiar to users of its licensing technology to the world of digital certificates. Certificates have much in common with Wibu-Systems’ original work in software protection and licensing, mainly their cryptographic underpinnings and the need for smart and tamper-proof delivery and management processes. CodeMeter Certificate Vault stores the necessary keys in secure containers and acts as a PKCS#11 compliant token provider – a great asset given the multithreading capabilities of the latest PKCS#11 library that make it work smoothly in AWS landscapes and especially with AWS Greengrass Core. It also simplifies the creation and roll-out of certificates, a complex process that often makes working with digital certificates a cumbersome experience. As such, and with its integration in OPC UA, it can help spread the use of digital certificates in M2M communication and aid the development of secure, trustworthy, and user-friendly industrial networks.

The second highlight at Embedded World will be the presentation of the all-new CmReady^TM: A completely new addition to the CodeMeter ecosystem, CmReady introduces Wibu-Systems’ popular protection and licensing technology on mass storage devices, beginning with the high-end SD and microSD cards made by Swissbit. With the security technology on board of Swissbit’s Data Protection (DP) cards, the new solution strikes a middle path between the security and sheer encryption power offered by Wibu-Systems’ powerful CmDongle hardware containers and the leaner CmActLicense software containers. In addition to their great portability and attractiveness for users of hardware without USB interfaces, the new CmReady hardware provides easily implemented license binding to the physical card itself rather than to the digital fingerprint of the target device.

Oliver Winzenried, CEO and Founder of Wibu-Systems, is looking forward to the kickoff of the event: “As IT and OT come together, human and digital experiences merge, and a new society is reinvented, the role of embedded devices, cloud computing, and most of all digital sovereignty are key to ensure machines, end users, and citizens at large are in control of their identities.”