Blurry Box Encryption Scheme and Why it Matters to Industrial IoT
5.11 USE CASE : MICROGRID CONTROLS
Intelligent microgrids require the intelligent sharing of data for energy-efficient and reliable power distribution . Their controls depend on software-enabled functions and form part of a critical infrastructure that is highly exposed to cyber-attacks . Countermeasures include protection against reverse engineering , integrity protection from secure boot to secure firmware updates , and flexible licensing to enable features and measure their use reliably .
5.12 USE CASE : TEXTILE INDUSTRY
In the textile industry , embroidery machines are a common sight in the production of clothes , shoes , high-tech wearables , or industrial textiles for seat heating or antennas . Factories often use multiple machines in one location .
The challenge for machine vendors is to prevent the pirating of complete machines . Their control software contains the know-how needed for high-quality , flexible embroidering at high efficiency . The threat is mostly due to the extremely competitive textile industry itself . Machines are made with a set of features ; their vendors offer a basic model at competitive low prices and sell more sophisticated functions – often software-realized – on top . This makes it important that factories do not , for example , buy several basic machines and only one with the full feature set that they then copy to the others .
Buyers of textiles face additional challenges : they provide production data – so called punch data – to the factories producing their fabrics on these machines . Unscrupulous factory owners could run extra shifts and produce additional wares for the grey market . The purchasers ’ data needs to be controlled , from the original CAD design to the embroidery machine , which also includes controlling how many products made from the designs .
This can be seen as a general “ digitization ” or “ Industrie 4.0 ” use case . It shows the great importance of protecting production data , which is essential for other areas as well , for example , additive manufacturing ( 3D printing ) or technology data , in the form of specific parameters for machines .
With software protection , flexible feature licensing , production data encryption , and secure storage of encryption keys and options , all of these challenges can be solved .
There are many more use cases . The chosen examples reveal the commercial relevance of the topic and the benefits of software protection . The mechanisms according to Kerckhoffs ’ Principle published here allow developers and manufacturers to understand how much protection they need and why they should not put all of their trust into “ security through obscurity .”
IIC Journal of Innovation - 17 -