Industry Expert Blogs

Context & Challenges

 A Fragmented Value Chain and growing businesses digital transformation.

Digital transformation of businesses creates a strong demand for smart digital devices and embedded systems. This significantly increases the cybersecurity risks. Moreover, the embedded system value chain is fragmented, making it vulnerable to security risks at every stage, from chip design to deployment. This situation translates into a set of cybersecurity threats including: 

• IP Theft: Sensitive hardware and software IP can be intercepted in transit or during network exchanges.
• Device Compromise: Attackers may embed malware or access cryptographic keys, compromising trust and functionality.
• Persistent Vulnerabilities: Despite rigorous development, residual flaws can leave systems exposed.
• Diverse Attack Vectors: Threats span passive (eavesdropping, traffic analysis) to active (fault injection, man-in-the-middle).
• Data Manipulation: Tampering with or stealing data can lead to severe consequences—from financial loss to safety risks.

 Growing Regulatory Pressure

Because of digital transformation of all sectors of the economy, cybersecurity is becoming a concern for all segments and markets. Fighting against cybersecurity threats means saving lives and avoiding financial losses. To address the growing cybersecurity risk, standards, and regulations worldwide are guiding and mandating digital systems manufacturers to follow secure design practices and manage their products security lifecycle.

Compliance requires organizations to manage cybersecurity risks holistically—from IP protection to continuous monitoring and from design to end of life.

 Regulatory Requirements at a Glance

To meet modern cybersecurity demands, organizations must adopt practices that address:

• IP and Data Protection: Enforce encryption, authentication, and data privacy compliance
• Secure Development & Updates: Apply secure-by-design principles, protect the software supply chain, and ensure updates integrity.
• Risk-Based Security: Identify, assess, and manage threats proactively.
• Vulnerability Management: Run regular security assessments, apply patches, and manage responsible disclosure.
• Security Monitoring & Response: Detect anomalies, maintain logs, and react swiftly with a defined incident response plan.

 Managing cybersecurity challenges during entire lifecycle

 Securing an embedded device means addressing security at every stage—from design to end-of-life.

• Security by Default: Integrate strong protections out-of-the-box
• Trusted Boot & Provisioning: Secure the first boot and manufacturing phases with authentication and integrity checks.
• Resilience Against Physical Attacks: Design for robustness against invasive threats.
• Secure Updates: Assess vulnerabilities before deployment and ensure software is securely delivered.
• Monitoring & Diagnostics: Use intrusion detection systems and restrict access to troubleshooting interfaces.
• Incident & Vulnerability Management: Implement tools like PSIRT (Product Security Incident Response Team) and secure diagnostics for ongoing risk mitigation.

The role of Secure-IC’s solutions

 Secure-IC’s “Chip-to-Cloud” solutions deliver complete lifecycle security:

• Securyzr™ iSE neo: Acts as the Root of Trust and the device cybersecurity Swiss knife, delivering all the tools and services for chip-level protection with high security coverage.
• Securyzr™ Host SW Framework: Provides secure APIs and connectivity layers to protect communications between components as well as an AI-driven Intrusion Detection System (Securyzr™ IDS) for tightly monitoring and defending your device from attacks.
• Securyzr™ Server: A cloud-ready platform enabling secure provisioning, calibration, vulnerability management, vulnerability-free software updates and threat monitoring.

  Conclusion & Takeaways

 The world has gone digital with embedded systems spread in all economic sectors. Consequently, the cybersecurity risk keeps increasing at every step of the value chain.

Therefore, digital devices and embedded systems require robust and efficient cybersecurity protection that spans their entire product lifecycle. Secure-IC empowers device makers to drastically mitigate cybersecurity risks with cutting-edge and comprehensive solutions. Integrating Secure-IC products helps chip manufacturers to comply with regulations like European Cyber Act, NIST, UNECE, Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act, Cybersecurity Act… and ensure lasting trust in their digital systems.