Four Key Supply Chain Security Challenges in 2022

Four Key Trends in Semiconductor Industry that Result in Data Security Challenges

By Niraj Tenany  •  June 17, 2022  •  1300 Views

Four Key Trends in Semiconductor Industry that Result in Data Security Challenges

Introduction:

“If data is the new oil, Semiconductor is the new steel,” says James Andrew Lewis, Sr. Vice President & Director of Strategic Technologies Program at CSIS. It is now clear that we are living in a semiconductor world, and this requires semiconductor companies to pursue new opportunities to grow. 

Semi-conductor Industry & Data Protection 

The Semiconductor industry is broadly categorized into the following segments: 

  • Design Firms – Companies like Apple and Marvel are design firms and are fabless
  • Foundries – Companies like TSMC and Samsung are foundries that manufacture the chips based on designs provided by design firms. 
  • Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs) – Companies like Intel and Microsoft are IDMs. They do design and manufacturing.
  • OSATs – Companies like ASE and Amkor are OSATs. They do the backend work once the manufacturing is complete by the foundries. 
  • Equipment Manufacturers – Companies like ASML and Lam Research belong to this category. They provide the sophisticated machinery for foundries to manufacture the chips. 

Regardless of the segment, Intellectual property is the lifeblood of the industry and needs to be protected to maintain the leadership position. Netwoven has identified the following trends posing significant data protection challenges for the semiconductor industry: 

Boundary-less collaboration between internal and external entities to innovate 

To innovate, organizations must collaborate with universities, other organizations, and other research centers. This opens the door for sharing of sensitive content in the form of emails and documents that require protection. The traditional methods of protecting via groups in Directory services only protect access to the workspace but once the files are downloaded, they are no longer protected and are subject to leakage and theft. 

Supply Chain Security

Semiconductor supply chains are complex and spread across the globe. For suppliers to produce the product, designs must be shared with the suppliers. There are no protections applied to these designs and can be leaked to suppliers and competitors easily resulting in supply chain security challenges.

Increased M&A Activities 

M&A activities require organizations to share confidential information amongst the entities and advisors. This information must be safeguarded. Organizations typically obtain subscriptions to Virtual Data Rooms (VDRs) to perform M&A activities. These VDRs are secure repositories in the cloud offered by third-party companies. While VDRs serve the purpose of data protection, the data remains outside the organization in another repository, not governed by the organization’s governance policies. 

Ongoing Cyberattacks from across the world 

Cyberattacks are more prevalent in semiconductor organizations as state actors are trying to gain access to valuable IP. Data security is the last line of defense ensuring that even if organizations have access to the data, they are unable to get access. 

A data protection strategy is a mandatory strategy for the semiconductor industry. It requires the entire value chain to embrace data protection for the benefit of the entire industry. 

Netwoven has worked with the world’s leading semiconductor companies to devise data protection strategies that span internally and externally while minimizing friction during collaboration. 

We hope you found this blog useful in understanding the challenges faced by the semiconductor industry in protecting data and Intellectual Property. Please reach out to us so that we can put our decades of experience in Data Security services and the powerful Microsoft Information Protection capabilities to work for your organization’s Digital Transformation. 

Niraj Tenany

Niraj Tenany

Niraj is Chief Executive Officer and a Co-founder of Netwoven, responsible for the strategic vision and direction. Niraj has been working with Fortune 500 companies to implement large-scale enterprise systems for the past 25 years. Prior to founding Netwoven, Niraj led a profitable Enterprise Applications Consulting Practice at Microsoft. His team implemented large scale deployments of enterprise applications like Siebel, Ariba, and SAP with Fortune 500 customers. Niraj’s team also led the design and implementation of OLAP solutions based on the Microsoft platform. Prior to joining Microsoft, Niraj led a profitable Business Intelligence Consulting practice with Oracle Consulting Services. Niraj has also worked with startup organizations in senior management positions. Niraj was the Director of Consulting Services at Zaplet, a Kleiner Perkins funded company. Niraj holds a BS in Computer Science from Birla Institute of Technology, India, an MS in Computer Science from State University of New York (SUNY), and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in North Carolina.

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