Over the next few years, security for managing 3D prints will be needed as much as it has become a critical requirement in the world of information technology. With security and the protection of digital assets in mind, several businesses have started to address this important issue for the 3D printing market. However, a lot more needs to be done in a preventative manner as opposed to waiting for the inevitable hacking and piracy which will otherwise follow.
Editors’s opinion: “Businesses need to prepare themselves for inevitable hacking attacks on 3D printers and repositories, especially as the value of products to 3D print increases.”
Given the importance of the intellectual property contained within 3D models, securing them from copying should be considered as essential and not as an after thought. It is true we need open source libraries with the likes of Thingiverse and free repositories that Doctors can use for medical applications; however to get the best and most useful commercial models, the design industry has to be brought on board.
For example, there is of course a risk for businesses who do not protect models being transferred from cloud based systems. Designs which are not underpinned with encryption and data streaming to 3D printers are at risk. Moreover, for high security applications in the defence sector, techniques are needed where models are never held in a single open file but constructed from multiple files; where each of those component files has been encrypted.
If protection is an issue (we think it is) then a model should not be sent to the 3D printer in one open file but as a stream of encrypted data. No single production file ever exists in the wild. Indeed the number of copies made on a 3D printer can be controlled from the cloud or server. Even if the data is intercepted it is of little use to the hacker or those engaged in the dark arts of industrial espionage. The hacker is only likely to get a small fragment of the encrypted file (model). In order to get the whole model they would need to be tapped in for hours and synchronised as opposed to milliseconds. Furthermore, they would then be faced with deciphering the hacked data.
The benefit of secure 3D printing is fairly clear when one considers that most commercial designers and businesses are reluctant to give unfettered access to their models. The loss to their potential income from piracy or unlicensed copying is foremost in their minds. Many would say rightfully, they wish to have a level of copyright protection. They want to avoid what they would consider to be the scourge of Bit Torrent and the Pirate Bay.
Our editor thinks: “Secure printing should be higher on the agenda as the day will arrive where there will be little choice but to adopt encryption with data streaming solutions.”
The 3DPrintWise crew certainly believe we would see better quality models being made available to the consumer market. Putting it bluntly, companies like Disney, Lego, et al will worry far less about their products being copied and shared all over the internet.
In the production world, there are also problems for businesses considering remote printing to support distributive manufacturing centres. Encryption of data streams with SSL is likely to play an important role for them. Files streamed in the ‘clear’ are still vulnerable to spying without that extra step of encryption.
At 3DPrintWise, we were starting to think about security a while ago in terms of 3D printing copyright protection and digital rights management. In fact the original article appeared over a year ago on our original web site. We try to get ahead of the curve and purchased a few domains which we believe, hold long term value. We are not alone in this thought as some have already registered domains containing key phrases. That being said, our .net variants, also represent equally good platforms to provide or support an internet property. Our selection of internet domains is as follows
3dprintshield.com – taken
3dprintingsecurity.net
secure3dprint.net
secure3dprinting.net – taken
3dprintingsecurity.net
secure3d.net
secured3d.net
These internet domains will stand alone or they can be used to support any company in the business of 3D printing security. The .net works in favour of a brand in our opinion.