Trustworthiness – security, reliability, and beyond
The road to a successful digitalization strategy in Europe
Wednesday, 5 June 2024, 16:00-17:30, Room Gorilla Room 1
Session Chair:
- Patrick Pype (NXP Semiconductors, )
- Manuela Neyer (Infineon Technologies AG, DE)
Malicious objects of all types were detected and blocked on 34 percent of Industrial Control System (ICS) computers in the first half of 2023, according to the ICS CERT landscape report by Kaspersky. The second quarter of 2023 saw the highest quarterly level of threats globally since 2019, with 26.8 percent of ICS computers affected.
Microelectronics have long become a ubiquitous feature of life, and with novel applications like self-driving cars and 6G sensing-communication applications in the pipeline, they will become an even more important part of the fabric of modern society. However, both the design as well as the manufacturing of these highly complex systems are prone to certain reliability issues, risks and threats, not least among them the ever-present danger of criminal manipulation, as e.g. hacking, cyber-attacks, etc. The entire process from design to manufacturing to operation must be watched carefully. The question of the trustworthiness of sources must be answered at every step of the product life cycle. Within the COREnext consortium, trustworthiness is high on the agenda and the future needs will be documented in a roadmap. In the future, methods such as digital fingerprints for identification and traceability will be employed much more heavily for this purpose. One specific challenge on the hardware side is that an update to remedy newly discovered security flaws is no longer possible in the field. Fundamental security measures must therefore be cleanly and carefully implemented and verified already during the design phase. Another new approach towards trustworthiness lies in the use of open-source code, although the public availability of source code does not automatically protect against potential attacks from the outside. One prominent example of open-source code in the IC sector is the open RISC-V architecture. Even when integrating such open-source IP into commercial projects, the questions of trustworthiness over the entire chain must still be answered. The trustworthy-by-design platform that COREnext proposes is a potential solution that would increase the network’s resilience by preventing threats, detecting and mitigating attacks, protecting data, establishing resilient communication channels, ensuring redundancy and reliability, and enabling rapid recovery, hence helping end users navigate connectivity securely. COREnext will communicate and disseminate information about this solution among stakeholders such as B5G/6G ecosystems, the industry sector, microelectronics ecosystems, other relevant initiatives, society and the end user. At the workshop itself, COREnext will invite representatives from other European projects, working in this domain, in order to have a good interaction and discussion at the workshop on the trustworthy features and platforms, and as such reach common conclusions amongst stakeholders all over Europe.
Programme
- Introduction on importance of Trustworthiness (15 min) by Michael Roitsch, Barkhausen Institut
- Presentation of COREnext White Paper (25 min) by Fredrik Tillman, Ericsson & Zulaicha Parastuty (Infineon)
- Panel Discussion on Trustworthiness (45 min), incl. questions from the audience. Participants to the Panel:
- Patrick Pype (NXP)
- Franz Dielacher (Infineon)
- Stefan Wunderer (Nokia)
- Panagiotis Demestichas (WINGS ICT Solutions)
- Mamoun Guenach (IMEC)
Moderator: Fredrik Tillman (Ericsson)
