Press Releases

U.S. tech giants dominate the cloud market. This threatens the technological sovereignty, data protection, and innovative capacity of European companies. In the “ApeiroRA” project, the Fraunhofer Institutes for Software and Systems Engineering (ISST) and for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) are supporting the software company SAP in securing Europe’s technological and economic independence in the cloud and edge sectors. The partners are developing an open-source blueprint for a European, vendor-neutral cloud-edge infrastructure that guarantees interoperability among different providers.

With the RISC-V Secure Element, the Fraunhofer Institutes for Integrated Circuits IIS, for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, and for Electronic Microsystems and Solid State Technologies EMFT are introducing a security chip that was designed and manufactured in Germany. The design is based on transparent open-source hardware, integrates post-quantum cryptography, and can be used as a standalone chip or as a system-on-chip component. The goal is to offer companies a trustworthy and customizable trust anchor – with points of contact in the EU – for connected devices and to support them in meeting the requirements of the European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

An industry consortium comprised of Intel, Infineon, Siemens, SAP and Bosch will develop a joint data room infrastructure for semiconductor manufacturing by September in the Semiconductor-X project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE). The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB) have now joined the consortium as cybersecurity partners and are developing a road map for secure data rooms. The goal is to enable companies to exchange sensitive production and process data securely along the value chain. The results are also intended to support other Manufacturing-X initiatives.

lowRISC C.I.C., the open-silicon ecosystem organization, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, one of Europe’s leading institutions for cybersecurity research, today announced that Fraunhofer has officially joined the OpenTitan® project as a key security testing partner. By bringing its world-renowned hardware evaluation expertise to the world’s first open-source silicon Root of Trust (RoT), Fraunhofer will play a critical role in independently validating the project's resilience against advanced physical and logical attacks.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) has joined the OpenHW Foundation. The goal of this collaboration is to advance open, trustworthy, and highly secure hardware platforms, thereby strengthening a key component of digital sovereignty in Europe.

Quantum computers are expected in the near future to break cryptographic schemes. As a result, critical data is already at risk today if it is intercepted and later decrypted using quantum computers. At the 5th PQC Update hosted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, experts in post-quantum cryptography (PQC) presented the current status of international PQC migration and gave recommendations for action: companies and public authorities must now, at the latest, inventory their cryptography, set priorities and protect particularly sensitive data first, combine classical and PQC schemes, and establish crypto agility. The need for action is considerable, as PQC is also relevant to the EU’s NIS 2 directive, which will have to be implemented in Germany from the end of 2025 to enhance cybersecurity. The EU roadmap calls for PQC migration of critical infrastructures by 2030 and full implementation by 2035.

Imagine a self-organizing factory: safety zones are cleared automatically and cyberattacks remain ineffective. This may sound like science fiction, but the KIbSIS research project is making it come true. As part of an international cooperation with South Korea, partners from the areas of research and business are seeking to develop fully automated AI-based safety acknowledgment for machine tools by 2028. The approach is based on standardized, trustworthy and quantum-secure AI technology.

The Forensics of Intelligent Systems research project is dedicated to the development of inter-disciplinary approaches to ensuring forensic readiness in the event of manipulation of continuously learning AI systems. The research project is funded by Cyberagentur and realized jointly by Atos, a globally leading enterprise in the field of AI-supported digital transformation, the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, the Institut für Internet-Sicherheit (Institute for Internet Security, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences) and the University of Cologne. The project aims to sustainably strengthen cyber security and the rule of law in the digital age.

The QuBA-libre risk assessment method developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC in collaboration with SICK AG quickly and easily evaluates product cybersecurity. It is now available as an open source tool on GitHub. The questionnaire-based assessment enables the efficient determination of product risk status with standardized protection requirements without overloading resources. Automated risk assessment, suggestions for corrective measures, documentation and assignment to the requirements of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) reduce the complexity of risk assessment and handling. QuBA-libre enables the integration of protective mechanisms, both in the concept and design phase for new products and in risk assessment and upgrades of existing products. Fraunhofer AISEC thus supports product manufacturers in ensuring cybersecurity as a quality feature of their products and in implementing the cybersecurity requirements of the CRA.

Audio deepfakes pose an increasing threat to businesses and society. Fraunhofer AISEC researchers have shown: humans struggle to identify AI-generated voices, but specialised AI models excel. Findings from an experiment with around 500 participants can refine detection systems and training initiatives.