Secured connectivity for data-driven supply chains

4th May 2020

Alex Lynn

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Industrial supply chain solutions like digital twins, usage-based pricing models, product warranties or licensing solutions increasingly require reliable and auditable sensor and process data. Yet security is paramount, especially when data is transferred from one company or organisation to another, Infineon has a a solution for secured connectivity.

To provide an advanced, tamper-resistant data security layer, Tributech Solutions relies on the OPTIGA Trust M security solution from Infineon Technologies.

Tributech’s DataSpace Agent combines hardware-based security and blockchain technology to securely share and track sensor and process data. Different options for the integration and a very low footprint in terms of memory- and computation-resources allow the integration of the DataSpace Agent at nearly every type of data source, from sensors with low level microcontrollers to powerful edge devices.

“By combining our expertise in secure data sharing with Infineon’s security hardware we enable companies to build a protected data layer along their value chain,” said Thomas Plank, CEO of Tributech. “The DataSpace Agent paves the way for a secure digital transformation, even across organisational boundaries, and offers completely new possibilities for data-driven business models in the industrial sector.”

Inside Tributech’s DataSpace Agent, Infineon’s OPTIGA Trust M single-chip solution acts as a highly secured vault for sensitive authentication and cryptographic keys. In addition, the OPTIGA Trust M also provides the cryptographic hashing and signing operations to enable the auditability of sensor data by a hardware based root-of-trust.

So far, most companies have focused on data generation within their companies. However, by sharing data across companies, they can unlock additional value and accelerate innovation. Such additional insights allow to increase process automation across the supply chain, to optimise quality and to create new business models and data services.

To provide an auditable quality level for verifying shared data whether used for decision-making, documentation, triggering payments or as an underlying basis for legal agreements, Tributech uses blockchain technology. The blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that records the so-called hashes for verifying origin and integrity of data and related transactions efficiently.

As each block is linked by cryptography to the previous block and contains a timestamp as well as transaction data, all required information for verifying shared data is stored in a verifiable and tamper-resistant way.