Viaccess-Orca Joins 3MF Consortium Contributing Digital Asset Security Expertise to Additive Manufacturing Industry Initiative

The 3MF Consortium today is announcing the release of the 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF) Secure Content specification, addressing the payload protection and production control requirements which are essential to unlock the full potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM). In conjunction with this announcement, and having notably contributed to the definition of the new specification, Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leading provider of digital content protection and advanced data solutions, is joining the 3MF Consortium as Founding Member.

The 3MF Consortium is dedicated to advancing a universal specification for 3D printing. The 3MF Secure Content specification establishes an underlying mechanism for payload encryption of sensitive 3D printed data based on modern web standards. This allows end-to-end encryption for targeted workflows, the application of industrial 3D printing applications with diverse part geometries to be printed in distributed environments with extensive supply chains. Furthermore this technology allows third parties to build eco-systems that properly mitigate privacy risks, obey governmental regulations or provide digital asset security and protection from data corruption.

With its commitment to open source, the Consortium has made the released version of the 3MF Secure Content specification and an implementation available on GitHub under a permissive BSD license.

VO today is also announcing the official general availability release of its Secure Manufacturing Platform (SMP), which ensures digital assets are secure and traceable across digitally distributed supply chains in compliance with the 3MF Secure Content specification.

Also Read: Leaked Algolia API Keys Exposed User Information for Millions of Users

“With AM’s coming of age, the need to resolve interoperability issues through standardized formats and interfaces on the one hand, and the requirement for digital content security to prevent data corruption or commercial misuse of data on the other hand, are growing more acute,” said Alain Nochimowski, EVP Innovation at Viaccess-Orca. “We are excited to join the membership ranks of the 3MF consortium and look forward to helping address the digital asset security aspects within the broader digital manufacturing industry.”

VO SMP is a digital asset distribution and traceability solution for use across the industry 4.0 supply chain. A critical component at the juncture of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) security chains, VO SMP allows companies using additive manufacturing (AM) or machining to effectively control, track, and trace data transactions across suppliers, ensuring the highest levels of cybersecurity standards and certifications.

As a member of the 3MF Consortium, VO brings more than 20 years of experience in designing, developing and operating digital content security systems. Together with its strong cryptographic expertise, VO is contributing real-world experience in mitigating digital asset security threats – an experience also inherited from more mature industry domains with credible adversaries, such as payTV, that bear evidence to the importance of standards in the emergence of sustainable industrial ecosystems. As a fully owned subsidiary of the Orange Group, VO is committed to empowering industrial players as they capitalize on the opportunities of Industry 4.0.

“In a modern cloud-connected world, data security and end-to-end encryption are playing an increasingly important role to mitigate the risk of leakages and data corruption in globally distributed manufacturing environments,” said Scott White, Software Distinguished Technologist at HP Inc. “Protecting the integrity and confidentiality of product designs, patient-specific biometric data, and other sensitive manufacturing content is critical to enabling additive manufacturing to scale into final part production in distributed, contractual, and highly regulated manufacturing environments.  We are thrilled that Viaccess-Orca joined the consortium and contributed their decades-long expertise to the design of the 3MF Secure Content extension. The final specification defines the payload encryption based on industry standards, and allows third parties to build their own key management ecosystems upon it. We believe this will allow it to be used to address a broad range of critical use cases simply and seamlessly.”