In the Semiconductor-X project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE), an industry consortium led by Intel, Infineon, Siemens, SAP and Bosch is developing a joint data room infrastructure for semiconductor manufacturing by September. The Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC and for Optronics, System Technology and Image Exploitation IOSB have joined the consortium as cybersecurity partners and are developing a roadmap for secure data rooms. The goal is to enable companies to securely exchange sensitive production and process data along the value chain. The results are also intended to support other Manufacturing-X initiatives.
Industrial companies are connecting machines, locations, and partners along value chains, but cybersecurity often lags behind. This is precisely the challenge facing the Manufacturing-X projects that emerged from Gaia-X. One example is the Semiconductor-X project: It aims to enable participating companies in the value chain to exchange sustainability, production, or process data securely and reliably via a data room.
CRA and NIS-2: Roadmap for secure industrial data rooms
Since the roles of companies and the interests to be protected vary greatly depending on the type of data, the respective data owners should be able to establish and monitor the rules governing the use of the data. For this reason, machine-readable data usage agreements form the basis for data exchange. To provide adequate security guarantees, the enforcement of these agreements must be supported by technical measures. Particularly when dealing with highly sensitive data, this requires advanced security mechanisms, such as securing the software stacks used through concepts of trusted and confidential computing.
The European legal framework also calls for a proactive and risk-based approach to cybersecurity. The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) imposes mandatory requirements on manufacturers and developers of connectors or gateways, while the NIS-2 Directive sets mandatory requirements for operators of federated services or hosted connectors. Together with existing Semiconductor-X partners, researchers at Fraunhofer AISEC and IOSB are developing a roadmap for secure industrial data rooms. To this end, they are focusing in particular on identifying vulnerabilities and blind spots that must still be addressed for industrial deployment.
The researchers are also developing specifications for data room gateways to process data of varying criticality levels, as well as concepts for data room governance, such as processes for onboarding data room participants and certifying them. Other key areas of focus include guidelines for the secure development and operation of components and services. The goal is to produce context-independent results to enable direct transfer to other Manufacturing-X contexts. This provides companies with practical guidance on how to securely set up their digital ecosystems from the very beginning.
TLDR – All the essential info in a nutshell:
Semiconductor-X E2E security at a glance
• Goal: A secure data environment for semiconductor manufacturing and supply chains
• Partners: Intel, Infineon, Siemens, SAP, Bosch, Fraunhofer AISEC, Fraunhofer IOSB
• Duration: Until Fall 2026
• Funding: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE)
The role of Fraunhofer AISEC and IOSB
• Development of a security roadmap for secure industrial data rooms
• Security concepts for operators, participants, and gateways/connectors
• Identification of outstanding security vulnerabilities and recommendations for action
• Coordination with other data room initiatives
About the X projects
• Origins in Gaia-X: interconnected, sovereign data and cloud infrastructures
• Manufacturing-X Initiative: Digitalization of industrial value chains and transfer of results across various industries
• Examples: Catena-X (automotive), Aerospace-X (aviation industry), Chem-X (chemical industry), Semiconductor-X (semiconductors), etc.
Glossary
• Gaia-X: A European project aimed at creating a secure, sovereign, and open digital infrastructure.
• Data Space: An organizational and technical framework in which multiple companies exchange data securely and in a controlled, decentralized manner—while maintaining data sovereignty—according to common rules.
• Gateway/Connector: A secure software component at the enterprise perimeter that controls data access, policy enforcement, and logging within the data space.
Dr.-Ing. Pascal Birnstill | Fraunhofer IOSB | Phone +49 721 6091-612 | pascal.birnstill@iosb.fraunhofer.de
Christian Banse | Fraunhofer AISEC | Phone +49 89 3229986-119 | christian.banse@aisec.fraunhofer.de
Press contact:
Ulrich Pontes | Fraunhofer IOSB | Phone +49 721 6091-301 | presse@iosb.fraunhofer.de
Tobias Steinhäußer | Fraunhofer AISEC | Phone +49 89 3229986-170 | presse@aisec.fraunhofer.de
Semiconductor manufacturing: Securely and reliably exchanging sustainability, production, or pro-ces ...
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Semiconductor manufacturing: Securely and reliably exchanging sustainability, production, or pro-ces ...
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