(Garching near Munich/Frankfurt a. M., August 12, 2024) Microelectronics is an important key technology in the technological transformation. Neither everyday objects such as smartphones and ID cards nor industrial manufacturing processes or medical diagnostic systems are conceivable without microelectronics. Due to the EU's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), manufacturers of hardware and software will have to prove in future that their products meet certain security standards. Electronic components are at the heart of every technology and should help to ensure that electronic products are fail-safe and reliable and have no security vulnerabilities.
However, in view of standardized and cost-efficient manufacturing processes in semiconductor production, this is a major challenge that requires a coordinated approach by the players involved. To this end, the Velektronik research platform - consisting of the Fraunhofer Institute, the Leibniz Association and the edacentrum - and the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE) have set up the new VDE Expert Group on Trustworthy Electronics, which is now the central point of contact for trustworthy electronics in Germany.
Among other things, the focus is on
- exchange of information on new findings from research
- definition and exchange of best practice between universities, research institutes, industry, testing laboratories and distributors
- monitoring which new legal regulations for safe production (NIS2) and for safe products (CRA) are developing
- pursue international, relevant standardization for trustworthy electronics
- derive new research projects from the findings of the above points
Invitation: Helping to shape trustworthy electronics
The spokespersons for the specialist group are Prof. Dr. Georg Sigl, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, and Dr. Detlef Houdeau, Senior Director Business Development, Infineon Technologies AG. The two electronics experts invite industry, research and authorities to participate in the new specialist group and help shape the topic of trustworthy electronics in Germany and Europe.
Further information on the specialist group and how to get involved is available on this website:
https://www.velektronik.de/fachgruppe-velektronik/ (German version)
Prof. Dr. Georg Sigl: "The Cyber Resilience Act is a good example of why participation in the newly founded expert group can be of great added value. The EU regulation not only defines the guidelines for the future implementation of cyber security, but also for trustworthy electronics. We want to inform the members of the working group about requirements and solutions for the implementation of the CRA at an early stage and define joint research projects for missing solutions."
Dr. Detlef Houdeau: "Cooperation between industry, research and authorities is crucial to advancing trustworthy electronics in Germany and Europe. With the new VDE expert group, we now have a central platform to pool our expertise, initiate new research projects and help shape security standards."
Transferring the results of the Velektronik research platform into application
The founding of the specialist group was announced at the Trusted Electronics Days, which took place at the beginning of June 2024 at the Fraunhofer headquarters in Munich. The focus was on the results of the BMBF funding guidelines ZEUS and ZuSE, which covered a wide range of topics from design to production and analysis of trustworthy electronics. As requested by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the new specialist group will also provide long-term funding. The focus was on technologies and methods for secure designs, securing supply chains, hardware fingerprinting, protection against attacks on implementations, secure life cycles of devices and adapting processors.
The new specialist group will continue these topics and put them into practice together with partners from industry, authorities and research. The Trusted Electronics Days will become the central event format for this topic in Germany in future. In addition to the regular bi-monthly virtual meetings, the new specialist group will also meet there once a year to exchange ideas in person.
The new specialist group MN 5.8 Trustworthy Electronics is part of the Micro- and Nanoelectronics division of the VDE Information Technology Society (VDE ITG) and expands the range of topics covered by the MN 5 Technical Committee Quality and Reliability of Integrated Circuits. The specialist group consolidates the activities of the Velektronik research platform, which was concluded with TdvE 2024, and enables long-term funding.
Brief profile of Fraunhofer AISEC
The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC translates excellence in IT security research into applied solutions for greater dependability, trustworthiness and tamper protection in IT-based systems and products.
We create innovative and customized cybersecurity solutions to accurately assess the security of systems and products, design them securely and operate them reliably throughout their entire life cycle.
With our internationally recognized cutting-edge research into cybersecurity, we improve the integrated security of embedded systems, hardware components, operating systems, applications and cloud-based services.
