Advantech Partners with DEKRA to Target Edge AI Cybersecurity Compliance Opportunities

Industrial computing leader Advantech (2395.TW) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with international testing and certification body DEKRA. The two parties will integrate industrial computing, cybersecurity testing, and global certification expertise to help customers incorporate security requirements from the product design stage, addressing international standards such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and IEC 62443. The scope of collaboration will extend from existing industrial applications to key sectors including robotics, drones, semiconductor manufacturing, energy, and transportation.

Advantech stated that the EU Cyber Resilience Act is gradually entering its implementation phase, and cybersecurity compliance has shifted from being a pre-market certification process to a prerequisite for industrial equipment and Edge AI products entering global markets. The core objective of this partnership is to help end-application customers and system integrators reduce compliance risks, shorten time-to-market, and establish a complete compliance workflow spanning product concept, design and development, testing and certification, through to market deployment.

Chang Chia-Hao, General Manager of Advantech's Embedded IoT Group, noted that the rapid development of Edge AI has made "compliance" no longer just a certification checkpoint at the end of product development, but a critical consideration that global customers must factor in from the earliest design stages. He said: "By combining Advantech's industrial computing and Edge AI technology capabilities with DEKRA's global testing and verification expertise, we hope to help customers grasp regulatory requirements earlier, reduce compliance risks, and shorten time-to-market, enabling trustworthy Edge AI innovations to enter global markets more efficiently."

DEKRA CEO Stan Zurkiewicz approached the topic from the perspective of digital trust. He stated that digital trust is a fundamental foundation for industrial innovation entering global markets. As artificial intelligence and connected technologies penetrate deeper into manufacturing, energy, and transportation, enterprises need verifiable safety and cybersecurity evidence to build market confidence in new technologies. He emphasized that DEKRA's role is to provide independent, objective verification to help enterprises respond to evolving international requirements.

First Collaborative Achievement: AFE-E630 Obtains SL2 Certificate of Conformance

The partnership has already produced concrete results. Advantech's industrial edge system AFE-E630 obtained an IEC 62443-4-2 Certificate of Conformance (AoC) through DEKRA's independent assessment, confirming that the product's security functions meet the relevant requirements of IEC 62443-4-2:2019 Security Level 2 (SL2) within the assessed scope.

The AFE-E630 is an industrial edge system specifically designed for commercial and industrial energy storage management applications. This assessment result provides a verified product cybersecurity foundation for related applications and further supports customers in subsequent product integration and system-level compliance requirements. For Advantech, the significance of this first achievement lies in validating the feasibility of "incorporating security at the design stage" and laying the groundwork for expanding the scope of collaboration.

In terms of specific collaboration mechanisms, the two parties will extend verification and compliance expertise into the early stages of product development, covering technical and feasibility assessments, documentation review, certification preparation, vulnerability management, and secure development support. By clarifying regulatory and technical requirements for different markets at the design stage, customers can plan certification pathways earlier and identify and address potential security gaps during development, avoiding increased time and costs from late-stage design modifications.

Partnership Expands to Robotics and Drones

Advantech further noted that as Edge AI and physical devices accelerate their integration, product safety, functional safety, and cybersecurity requirements are increasingly intertwined. Compliance capability in a single domain is no longer sufficient to support market access requirements for emerging applications. Therefore, the two parties plan to expand the scope of collaboration from existing industrial applications to AI-driven industrial systems, semiconductor manufacturing, robotics, drones and other mission-critical unmanned systems, as well as energy sites and transportation.

The logic behind this expansion lies in the fact that emerging applications such as robotics and drones have even more stringent cybersecurity requirements. Such devices often involve real-time control, sensor data processing, and remote communications. A security vulnerability could pose risks to personal safety or critical infrastructure. Advantech's edge computing platforms and industry application experience, combined with DEKRA's expertise in cybersecurity testing, verification, and functional safety, will help related products accelerate entry into global markets.

From a market trend perspective, the EU Cyber Resilience Act applies to all products with digital elements, including hardware and software, directly impacting manufacturers of IoT devices, industrial control systems, and edge computing equipment. The Act requires manufacturers to maintain cybersecurity standards throughout the entire product lifecycle, including vulnerability management, security updates, and incident reporting mechanisms. For Taiwan's export-oriented industrial computing industry, compliance capability has become a core element of competitiveness.

As the global leader in industrial computing, Advantech has a broad customer base in embedded platforms, industrial automation, and smart IoT. This strategic alliance with DEKRA strengthens Advantech's service capabilities in the cybersecurity compliance domain on one hand, while also reflecting the industry trend of industrial computing companies transforming from pure hardware suppliers to providers of integrated "hardware + compliance + security" solutions.

Industry observers noted that the IEC 62443 standard is the international benchmark for industrial automation and control system cybersecurity, covering full-lifecycle requirements from product development and system integration to operations and maintenance. Obtaining SL2-level certificate of conformance indicates that a product has protection capabilities against attackers with moderate resources, representing an important threshold for entering European and North American industrial markets. Through deep collaboration with a third-party certification body, Advantech is positioned to gain differentiated advantages in the increasingly competitive industrial cybersecurity arena.

Looking ahead, Advantech and DEKRA will continue to combine their respective expertise to help customers respond more efficiently to compliance requirements across different markets, reduce cross-border deployment risks, and accelerate product launches. Against the backdrop of the EU CRA regulations being progressively implemented and cybersecurity standards continuing to evolve across countries, this "industry experience + independent verification" collaboration model is expected to become an important strategic option for industrial equipment manufacturers expanding into global markets.