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CAD Security

How Secure is your Engineering Data?

It is high time for CAD users to take CAD security seriously and protect their engineering data. Read this blog to learn more about why you need to protect your engineering data with HALOCAD.

December 10, 2023
How Secure is your Engineering Data?

Introduction

The manufacturing industry has undergone a huge digital transformation in recent years. While these changes have increased productivity, the industry has also experienced new pressures from cybersecurity.

In 2022, the industry has been vulnerable to 250 data violation incidents in the United States alone costing nearly 23.9 million USD. More and more industries are finding their intellectual property (IP) at risk as threat actors become more sophisticated. The manufacturing industry must take these threats seriously and safeguard its engineering data against cybercrimes.

The importance of Engineering Data in the manufacturing industry

Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) are extensively used today by design engineers in product development. CAD data is used to validate designs using simulation and to generate the bill of materials (BOM). It also contains important manufacturing data like numerical control, machine codes, material specification and much more.

As engineers strive to make a design flawless, it undergoes many iterations resulting in massive amounts of CAD data. So much data is very hard to protect. This data, if it falls into the wrong hands could be permanently deleted, corrupted and made useless, or encrypted as part of a ransomware attack. A CAD security breach could result not only in a loss of design time but also in a significant loss of revenue and low employee morale.

Protecting your Engineering Data is a must

Most engineering data is the intellectual property of organizations. Even the multiple iterations of CAD fall into the intellectual property category. Just a small security breach can result in a significant loss. In today’s fast-paced developing world competing products can arise anywhere and all the years of research into making that product go in vain.

CAD solutions can be easily copied and replicated into another similar product when these solutions are not secure. Organizations that are involved in developing niche and highly differentiated products have the most to lose.

How HALOCAD helps in your protecting your Engineering Data

CAD software systems themselves do not provide inherent security and encryption. CAD vendors may offer some user login options on their networks or clouds, but this is not data centric security.

HALOCAD®  is a unique enhancement for Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP, aka MIP or AIP), the leading platform for Enterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM). Like a gatekeeper, HALOCAD® automatically protects your CAD files whenever they leave your secured Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) repository or even your IT perimeter. CAD applications can seamlessly consume those MPIP-protected files and the user experience is preserved due to the MPIP plugins provided by HALOCAD®

Here’s how HALOCAD helps protect your CAD files:

  • HALOCAD leverages Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) to encrypt CAD files. It fully supports the Rights Management System (RMS) implementation of Active Directory, Office 365, and Azure Active Directory.
  • HALOCAD automatically applies Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) labels to CAD files during checkout from the product lifecycle management (PLM) system vault.
  • HALOCAD enables PTC Creo and Windchill applications to use MIP directly whenever the CAD files are checked out for editing or exported for sharing with partners.
  • HALOCAD enables Siemens Teamcenter and NX/Solid Edge applications to use Azure Information Protection (AIP) to encrypt the data files along with security labels and privilege enforcement.
  • HALOCAD is seamlessly integrated with Teamcenter PLM with CAD enabling the user to work transparently on the protected data files in the respective tools.
  • HALOCAD enables CAD applications to use MIP directly when SAP is not the CMS in the background. It applies end-to-end protection of CAD files by applying MIP templates on the CAD files at the moment of its creation.
  • HALOCAD extends CAD data protection and supports multi-file formats.
  • HALOCAD seamlessly extends data-centric security across PLM and Multi-CAD integrations.
  • Conclusion

    It is high time for CAD users to take security seriously and protect their engineering data. They need to choose a CAD security solution provider who not only provides the best solution but also one that adheres to industry standards and compliance. Progressive companies need to constantly update their existing CAD security solutions. They need to constantly block security threats with a CAD protection policy and periodic review.

    To know more about how HALOCAD can help protect your Engineering Data send an email to contact@secude.com

    References

    CAD security | A Lifecycle Insights 2022 Study

    The Importance of a Cad Security Strategy

    Protect your data.
    Protect your future.