Karlsruhe, Germany, January 2017 – Wibu-Sytems, the global leader for business monetization through know-how protection and secure software licensing, has joined the Sino-German Industrie 4.0 Project (I4.0 Project), which is aimed at identifying existing Sino-German cooperation projects on intelligent manufacturing and interconnected production processes in China. Already in 2015, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MIIT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding and committed to flanking cooperation projects between companies from China and Germany that support intelligent manufacturing and interconnected production concepts.

Wibu-Systems has an established presence in China, with two local offices in Shanghai and Beijing. Together with Wibu-Systems’ headquarters in Germany, WIBU-SYSTEMS (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. is fully engaged in bringing cyber security measures to the forefront of any discussion related to Made in China 2025. This initiative, meant to stimulate a comprehensive upgrade for Chinese industry, drew inspiration from Industrie 4.0 and was launched in 2015. Together, Made in China 2025 and Industrie 4.0 are an integral part of the structural change that is driving our global economies to optimize industrial processes, promote traditional and advanced industries, and introduce innovation, quality, intelligent manufacturing, and green production on a large scale.

For the Sino-German I4.0 map, Wibu-Systems has chosen to highlight its Chinese partner IECHO Science Technology Co., Ltd., a well-known local manufacturer of computer-controlled cutting systems for single and multiple cutting applications and industry leader in pattern design software and vision system.

Industrie 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing require significant investments in research and development, producing highly sensitive know-how and data. Protecting these assets is one of the most important challenges for intelligent manufacturing and one that China has to master in order for German companies to be willing to commit more completely to the Chinese market.

The joint project between Wibu-Systems and IECHO is based on CodeMeter, a technology that safeguards the integrity of production data, be it machine code or configuration parameters. The encryption keys along with digital signatures, certificates, and entitlement rights are safely stored in CmDongles, hardware-based units in the form factor of USB dongles, memory cards, or ASICs that integrate a smart card chip with advanced cryptographic features. The implementation of CodeMeter ensures that the communication occurs only between certified and manufacturer-specific machines, that the vendor’ IP is fully protected, and that production data used in the manufacturing process does not fall prey to hackers.

The two companies are also looking beyond the Sino-German I4.0 Project and cooperating with Chinese organizations, such as the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and the Alliance Industrial Internet (AII, CAICT), to share the results of their successful cooperation.