Press Releases

Germany’s telematics infrastructure (TI) aims to allow healthcare professionals to exchange patient data securely, rapidly and from anywhere. The platform for healthcare applications will soon see a new, flexible and therefore future-proof security architecture. The aim is to make it easier to exchange data between all parties involved as well as to facilitate access to specialist services. In conjunction with Bundesdruckerei, CompuGroup Medical, D-Trust GmbH and genua GmbH, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC has laid down the design foundations for gematik, who is responsible for the TI: Besides an architecture design based around zero trust principles and a migration plan, a demonstrator for the next-generation security architecture has also been developed. Proof of concept has also been done to demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture.

Advancing digitalization and networking are bringing about ever-increasing volumes of data in the machine tool industry. To exploit its potential for data-driven innovations, the data needs to be aggregated and evaluated across companies. In the “Secure collaborative utilization of machine tool data using privacy-enhancing technologies” (MINERVA) research project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC (project coordinator) is working together with partners to develop technologies for a data infrastructure that uses privacy-enhancing technologies to ensure the security of sensitive machine data. The research group also includes the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at the Technical University of Munich, Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme GmbH and Siemens AG.

In an interconnected world, cybersecurity goes far beyond the borders of individual countries and calls for collaboration on international level. Fraunhofer AISEC is collaborating closely with research institutions in Singapore. The goal is to identify both the threats and the potentials that accompany advances in quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) at an early stage. High-ranking representatives from Singapore's government and research community visiting Fraunhofer AISEC highlight the importance of international cooperation and provide new incentives for joint research.

Microcontrollers have become an indispensable element of networked systems. Despite the fact that they store sensitive data, the security of the underlying hardware is rarely considered during product development. Simple measures can, however, be taken to counteract this. This is revealed by the study on hardware attacks against microcontrollers conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC on behalf of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

The security chips found on personal identity cards and passports are under threat from quantum computing. But now, as part of its PoQuID research project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC has developed cryptographic protocols that are tough enough to withstand attacks waged by quantum computers. The com-panies Infineon and Bundesdruckerei were partners in the project.

The new mobile communications standard 6G is expected to be launched on the market around 2030. 6G networks should be an im-provement on the existing 5G networks, not only due to their excep-tional performance and sustainability, but also because of their trust-worthiness. To ensure that Europe plays a decisive role in the develop-ment and introduction of technical standards for 6G, thereby securing its sovereignty in this key technological field, a total of 29 companies and research institutions are now cooperating as part of the “6G-ANNA” research project run by the German Federal Ministry of Educa-tion and Research (BMBF). The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC is contributing its cyber security expertise in the fields of “Confidential Computing” and “Code Analysis”. On the one hand, the aim is to design the overall IT system as a zero-trust ar-chitecture and, on the other hand, to detect and correct faulty codes as early as the development stage. The “6G-ANNA” project has a budget of €38.4 million and runs until mid-2025.