Press Releases

Home environments are among the areas in which the digital trans-formation is taking huge strides. Properties kitted out with smart home appliances and tightly networked residential areas are bringing the quality of living spaces into a whole new dimension. At the same time, there are growing security requirements being imposed on both the IoT systems used in these environments and users’ private spheres. In a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Re-search (BMBF), entitled “Secure heterogeneous IoT systems in proper-ties and residential areas (SHIQ),” a seven-strong cross-industry consortium made up of research institutions and companies is taking a holistic approach to shaping the smart living environments of tomorrow. By increasing IT security in smart properties and residential areas, over the long term it is setting new standards in secure building control systems and protection for residents’ private spheres in the construction and property sector.

Advances in digitalization require new encryption technologies for industrial processes, which are increasingly connected across international borders. One example is the acknowledgement of safety systems of machine tools via the Internet. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, Technical University of Munich, Siemens AG, and high-tech company TRUMPF have teamed up in a project called PoQsiKom to develop a way to securely release the protected areas of machine tools remotely. The new concept is based on a versatile chip with crypto-agile quantum security technology that will also stand up to future threats. The partners will be showcasing their demonstrator in Hall 002, Stand B24, at Hannover Messe 2024.

With the innovative research project "AIgenCY - Opportunities and Risks of Generative AI in Cybersecurity," leading experts from academia and industry take on the challenge of exploring the implications of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for cybersecurity.

On January 18, 2024, the Bavarian Chip Design Center (BCDC) reached an important milestone on its path toward making Bavaria a leading location for innovation and excellence in chip design. As part of the Symposium on Chip Development – Greater Innovation through Chip Design, held at Fraunhofer IIS, Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger presented the Center with a grant of 50 million euros.

MEDINA is an automated framework designed to make it easier for cloud service providers to obtain EUCS certification. EUCS stands for "European Union Cybersecurity Certification Scheme on Cloud Services" and aims to increase the trust and monitoring options of cloud services users. To this end, the framework defines security standards in cloud environments and includes tools, techniques and processes that make cloud security measurable. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC has contributed its expertise in cybersecurity to the European research project.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC, a leading light in research into applied cybersecurity, held its first Cybersecurity Day on November 9, 2023. The event gave around 150 participants from companies, public authorities and the press valuable insights into the very latest developments in cybersecurity. A demonstrators exhibit showcased specific hardware and software solutions that illustrated how organizations can get involved in pioneering technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing without compromising on cybersecurity.

Step by step, the driverless truck is becoming a reality: Since January 2022, MAN Truck & us, Knorr-Bremse, Leoni, Bosch, Fernride, BTC Embedded Systems, Fraunhofer AISEC, Munich University of Technology, Braunschweig University of Technology, TÜV SÜD, Autobahn GmbH and the Würzburg Institute of Transportation Sciences (WIVW GmbH) have been working together in the ATLAS-L4 research and development project (Automatisierter Transport zwischen Logistikzentren auf Schnellstraßen im Level 4 / Automated Transport between Logistics Centers on Level 4 Expressways) to put autonomous trucks on the road. In terms of content, the project is based on the German law on autonomous driving passed in 2021, which in principle allows autonomous driving on defined routes under a technical supervision. After the first 22 months, the project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, has already reached important milestones.

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.