NEC and Cisco to Provide Network Equipment

NEC Corporation has recently announced that it has strengthened processes for confirming the authenticity of network equipment used for security areas and critical industrial infrastructure prior to shipment, during construction, and during operation by combining its fraud detection technologies with those from Cisco Systems G.K. (Cisco), utilizing NEC blockchain technologies for network devices.

This is an important advancement in NEC’s efforts to strengthen the verification, monitoring, and management of authenticity throughout the network system supply chain by expanding the scope of targeted network equipment through partnerships.

Both NEC and Cisco aim to begin rolling out network equipment based on this initiative from fiscal 2020.

In recent years, cyber threats have become increasingly serious, and there are growing concerns that attacks targeting the security domain and the supply chains of critical industrial infrastructure could cause significant economic and social damage. In addition, security measures for network equipment in a multi-vendor environment and risk management throughout the entire supply chain, from device design to manufacturing, transportation, and maintenance, are also considered important issues.

In response to these challenges, NEC is cooperating with Cisco to provide a network system platform that can use the information and communications equipment safely and securely.

The first step in this initiative is to verify the existing authenticity of Cisco equipment with NEC by combining Cisco’s proprietary Trustworthy technology, NEC’s lightweight tamper detection technology and blockchain technology.

Trustworthy technology uses device-specific IDs, digital signatures, and other technical elements to verify the authenticity of devices from both the hardware and software perspectives, and has already been implemented in many Cisco network devices.

Lightweight tamper detection technology uses embedded software to detect program tampering and enables high-speed detection with execution codes consisting of just a few kilobytes, which is ideal for low-memory devices and equipment with strict delay time constraints.

By recording historical data inspected by these technologies in a blockchain, network administrators can check, monitor, and manage the authenticity of Cisco devices during shipment inspection and network construction.

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