In battle against industrial product piracy

Product piracy of capital goods is growing, and even entire machines and plants are being copied.

According to a survey conducted by the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA), an industrial association in Germany, two-thirds of the mechanical engineers surveyed fell prey to technology theft in 2012. This generally results in damages in the billions, but the social impact should also be considered: If the mechanical engineers had manufactured these products themselves, it would have protected approximately 37,000 jobs in Germany.

Is it too easy for product pirates?

“Most companies have no idea just how easy it is to copy their products,” says Bartol Filipovic, head of the Product Protection and Industrial Security department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) in Garching, Germany. Individual machine components are usually standard products, and that makes it easy for plagiarizers to counterfeit them.

Protection already implemented in Simatic

The innovative features of a machine or plant can usually be found in the electronic control components and the software. That’s why the control software in particular has to be protected from cyberattacks and unauthorized copying. In the Simatic S7-1500 and S7-1200 controllers from Siemens, this protection is already integrated. Siemens developers achieved this by linking the program code to the hardware, which is why it can no longer be copied.

Companies are working together worldwide to put an end to product piracy. Industrial security is given top priority – but often the only thing that works is a combination of different measures.

Holograms: Holograms are glued to the machines and indicate that the supplier of the device software has legally acquired a license. Benefit: They are relatively inexpensive. However, they have a minor impact as a protection measure against pirates. In addition, they are easy to forge.

Passwords: The use of passwords is essential because they safeguard access to machines. Just as in the private sector, passwords should not be easy to guess. In addition, brute-force protection should be implemented that automatically closes the program after several incorrect attempts to enter the password. It is also important that the password be saved in a memory that is safe from hackers.

Digital signatures or “electronic fingerprints”: Digital signatures are used to authenticate access for the operation, maintenance, and repair of machines.

Protective film as a future-oriented technology

Scientists are currently working on a protective film that is wrapped around electronic control systems – and has a very special function. If the film is damaged, the software automatically becomes unusable, which prevents attackers from accessing the data. The film can also be retrofitted. The technology will be ready for use in about two years.