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94 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2018 Article by Hubertus Grobbel SWISSBIT AG Networking devices and machinery is in full swing. However, despite all the Industry 4.0 enthusiasm, there are voices of caution: Secure your communication. For this, identification of the participants is one requirement and special SD cards offer a surprisingly simple and flexi - ble solution—ready for post-quantum cryptog- raphy. For IT security experts, the three steps that open a "secure channel" are obvious: identi- fication, authentication and authorization. A two-step authentication process can signif- icantly improve security. The token used for authentication can also be used for encrypting the communication content. Today, these processes are generally accepted by the human user of IT networks. But this is different for the Internet of Things (IoT). So far, sensors, actuators, devices, machines, IT systems, and, of course, critical infrastructures rarely need to "identify" themselves when they connect to networks—and anybody who requests data from them or stores data on them also remains anonymous. In well-guarded manufacturing plants that are not connected to the internet, these risks might be tolerated. In the smart, networked factories of the future, such security gaps are no longer acceptable. The risk is too great for unauthor - ized individuals to gain control over the smart factory using r emote internet access. There are reports and videos about cars that could suddenly be remotely controlled by unauthor - ized parties. They emphasize that the possibil- ity of remotely controlling factories and power stations , or of third-party controlled manufac- turing robots, should not simply be brushed aside . Therefore, things also must be assigned an ID. If only identified devices can communi- cate with each other, life becomes significantly more challenging for hackers. ID Inside the Memory Card Thus far, fitting a device with a secure element either meant soldering identifi- able hardware components (trusted platform