NXP's NFC Solution for Security in Industrial Automation

The implementation of industrial automation aims to improve the quality of many sectors by using hardware and software to manage inventory, productivity, and safety concerns of the day to day workplace. NXP has developed an extensive portfolio with over 30 product lines and applications to enable comprehensive solutions at all layers of factory automation including manufacturing, logistics, operations, and edge-cloud.

The use of Near Field Communication (NFC) in industrial automation is bringing improvements to human-machine interfaces, ease of maintenance, pairing, commissioning, and various settings including configurations for machinery and sensors, authenticated tools, and device-to-device communication. NXP’s NTAG® 424 DNA uses multi-layer security to support a wide range of NFC-based applications to protect products, services, and user experiences.

NXP’s secure NFC solution

The NTAG® 424 DNA uses AES-128 cryptographic operation and Secure Unique NFC (SUN) which are fine-grained permissions to ensure only authorized uses, applications, and devices can access sensitive data or issue commands. SUN authentication messages are created each time an NTAG 424 DNA tag is tapped. The tap-unique URL is then read by an NFC-enabled device and sent to a server for secure tag and message authentication that returns a verification result.

Other security features include 3-pass mutual authentication to access the protected data file, random ID and encrypted UID for enhanced privacy protection, and attack resistant hardware.

NFC on the Production Floor

NFC functionality is extremely useful on the factory floor as it can keep track of product information such as passes throughout the supply chain. Using the NTAG® 424 DNA, products can be securely authenticated at any point in the supply chain from sourcing to distribution. Additionally, the NTAG® 424 DNA can help ensure security on a production floor by requiring proof of presence and providing trust only to verified personnel such as equipment maintenance, repair workers, field inspectors, or security guards.

The NXP NTAG® 424 DNA TagTamper allows inspections and consumers to detect any product interference anywhere in the supply chain through the use of a tamper loop with on-chip status detection. Product integrity can be verified by reading a tag status to check if the tamper loop is intact and is protected from any manipulation via a two-stage status message.

Additional Details

The NTAG® 424 DNA / 424 DNA TagTamper is NFC Interoperable with ISO/IEC 14443-A communication and NFC Forum Type 4 Tag and has Common Criteria EAL4 certification for Hardware & Software. Samples for both are now available for select customers.