Case Study: ZF Friedrichshafen AG secures manufacturing processes with Thales e-Security HSMs

ZF Friedrichshafen AG Secures Wireless Manufacturing with Thales HSMs

ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a global automotive manufacturer with more than 130,000 employees and 230 manufacturing facilities in 40 countries, needed a more secure and efficient way to manage certificates for its wireless manufacturing and office-based processes. Its earlier decentralized PKI approach made it difficult to track and update thousands of certificates, and the private keys behind the certificate authorities were not protected in a scalable hardware-based environment.

ZF chose Microsoft Windows Server PKI with Thales nShield hardware security modules from Thales e-Security to secure certificate issuing keys, support remote management, and meet auditor and regulatory expectations. The company now manages tens of thousands of machine certificates, protects manufacturing systems from unauthorized access, and was able to roll out certificates to clients worldwide in one day with no reported errors.

ZF Friedrichshafen AG

Jürgen Paulmichl

Information Technology Security Manager