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Semiconductor
Data-Centric Security (DCS) solutions with the fastest time-to-value and superior user experience
Semiconductor companies design, manufacture, and support the technologies that power nearly every modern industry, from data centers to automobiles. Their global operations depend on sharing highly sensitive design, process, manufacturing, and other intellectual property with foundries, suppliers, partners, and engineering teams across multiple countries. This reliance on global collaboration, combined with stringent export controls on semiconductor technology and technical data, makes protecting sensitive information both a security priority and a regulatory obligation.
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Learn how global high-tech organizations protect critical intellectual property, secure engineering data and source code, while enabling safe, collaborative innovation across distributed teams and partner networks
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Challenges
Technology Export Controls
Governments control advanced semiconductor technology for national security reasons, and export controls can cover technical data such as chip designs, process know-how, and manufacturing information, as well as chips and equipment. Export controls can apply to electronic transfers and to who can access the data, not only to physical shipments, so companies with multinational engineering teams need to manage access based on the data, the recipient, and the regulations that apply.
Insider Threats
Semiconductor companies hold highly sensitive intellectual property and technical data, from chip designs and process recipes to yield data and equipment specifications, yet employees, contractors, and partners need to work with this information every day. Without data-level controls, sensitive files can move to personal storage, external collaboration tools, or generative AI tools with little oversight.
Ecosystem Collaboration
Making a chip involves a chain of specialized partners, and each one needs access to some of the company’s sensitive data: foundries receive designs, assembly and test providers receive test programs and packaging specifications, and equipment suppliers may receive process data to service tools in the fab. Each hand-off puts sensitive information into systems the originating company does not fully control, while foundries must maintain logical separation between multiple customers’ data within shared environments.
Fragmented Access Control
Intellectual property and technical data reside across EDA tools, design data management systems, PLM, ERP, file shares, and cloud applications, each with its own access controls and permission models. Without a consistent policy across all these environments, security teams may struggle to determine who can access a given file or record, while outdated permissions can accumulate as engineers move between projects and roles.
A Data-Centric Approach to Semiconductor Security
To address technology export controls, ecosystem collaboration, insider threats, and fragmented access control, semiconductor companies need a data-centric security (DCS) strategy that protects sensitive information throughout its lifecycle and across the environments where it is accessed, shared, and stored. Key elements include:
- Distributed Policy Engine​
A distributed policy engine supported by the policy platform applies consistent security controls to data across applications, databases, servers, file repositories, and cloud environments. The engine evaluates each access request at runtime against attributes such as the user’s role, location, project assignment, and the data’s classification. Companies can translate requirements from export controls, technology control plans, and data-sharing agreements into consistent access policies, rather than managing separate permissions in each system
- Data-Centric Security Controls ​
Protecting sensitive data across all devices and locations requires data-centric security (DCS) controls like Digital Rights Management (DRM), logical data segregation, and data masking. DRM keeps designs, process documents, and test programs under policy control after they reach foundries, OSATs, and equipment suppliers, with access rights such as viewing, editing, or extracting content enforced according to policy. Logical data segregation can help keep one customer’s or project’s data separated from others within shared environments, while data masking limits what users can see in ERP systems and databases.
- Automate and Prevent ​
Automated policy enforcement protects sensitive design, process, manufacturing, and other intellectual property without relying on users to manually manage permissions. Policies evaluate based on data classification, project assignment, user role, and partner context to determine whether access is allowed, restricted, or blocked. When an engineer moves to a new project, access to the previous project’s-controlled data changes with it, and when a file goes to a foundry or supplier, the policy travels with the file. The platform detects, alerts on, and blocks unauthorized access in real time, including requests from AI systems outside their approved scope.
- Centralized Audit and Reporting ​
Consolidating audit logs from applications and protected files in a report server provides visibility and accountability across global engineering sites and partner networks. Security teams can see who accessed which file or record, and from where, helping them investigate access activity and demonstrate compliance. A centralized audit trial can also simplify export compliance reviews and customer audits.
NextLabs Solution
CloudAz Unified Policy Platform
Semiconductor companies run design, manufacturing, and business data across many applications, and each one manages access differently. CloudAz replaces those silos with one centralized policy platform that decides access in real time, based on who the user is, what the data is, and where it is being used. Teams can write policies once, and CloudAz enforces them across EDA, PLM, ERP, file repositories, MES, and database environments, including applications from SAP and Siemens. CloudAz can be deployed on premises, in a private cloud, or as SaaS.
SkyDRM Digital Rights Management
Designs, process documents, and test programs go to foundries, OSATs, and equipment suppliers every day. SkyDRM keeps these files protected even after they are shared outside the organization, wherever they are stored or accessed. Policies determine who can view, edit, copy, print, or extract each file, with protection applied to supported file types. Partners can open protected files in a browser, mobile client, or supported native applications, while data owners can monitor how shared files are used.
Data Access Enforcer (DAE) Data-Level Security Controls
Product specifications, bills of materials, manufacturing data, supplier contracts, and customer orders reside in ERP systems and databases shared across regions and programs. NextLabs’ DAE applies logical data segregation and field-level masking to show each user only the data they are authorized to access based on attributes. This can help separate data associated with export-controlled projects and individual foundry customers within shared systems. DAE also supports SAP ERP, SAP HANA, SAP BW/4HANA, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, and AWS RDS with a single set of policies and without custom code.
Application Enforcer
NextLabs’ Application Enforce extends granular, attribute-based access controls into Microsoft applications such as Teams, SharePoint, and Exchange, helping semiconductor companies protect sensitive design, manufacturing, and business information as employees and external stakeholders collaborate across distributed teams. Policies can be enforced in real time based on factors such as user role, project assignment, and data classification, helping maintain consistent controls across collaboration and information-sharing workflows.
CloudAz Report Server
Export audits, customer security reviews, and incident investigations all depend on knowing who accessed which data and when. CloudAz Report Server provides centralized logging and reporting of data access activity and authorization decisions across connected applications. It integrates with SIEM and SOAR systems, enabling security teams to monitor activity across engineering sites and partner networks on one dashboard, while providing compliance teams with a centralized audit trial.Â
