ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, bringing unprecedented AI experiences to numerous consumers. This highlights the continuous development of AI technology and its rapid proliferation in people's daily lives. Meanwhile, with the vigorous development of technologies such as 5G, IoT, and cloud native computing, the concept of edge computing has also emerged to provide the best online experience for Internet users.
Traditional AI applications involve using the Internet to upload raw data to large cloud servers for analysis. However, with the increasing number of IoT devices, this often leads to issues such as raw data leakage, insufficient network bandwidth, and communication delays. Therefore, when cloud AI is deployed in smart manufacturing, smart transportation, and other scenarios, there may be a significant degradation in service quality as devices may not work together properly, potentially causing traffic accidents, industrial safety hazards, and other problems. For this reason, using edge computing servers to analyze data locally to mitigate such problems is a popular option in the market today. However, with the rapid proliferation of AI services, the issue of potential information security risks has also come to the fore. Hacker groups have begun launching attacks on AI applications such as ChatGPT to steal large amounts of sensitive data. Edge computing security has therefore become a major challenge that needs to be addressed in the development of AI services.
Dr. John K. Zao, the founder and chairman of FiduciaEdge Technologies, pointed out that existing information security solutions can be roughly divided into three categories. The first category includes the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), firewalls, and other mechanisms to protect data in transit. The second category deals with security mechanisms for websites and databases to ensure the security of data in storage. The third category aims to implement appropriate information isolation in the trusted edge computing environments to protect those data in use. Trusted edge computing is becoming increasingly important as more manufacturers are now running AI applications on their sites to analyze the raw data collected from the IoT devices installed on their production lines.
Focusing on Edge Computing Security and Protecting Computing Processes and Data Privacy
The explosion in the ubiquity of IoT devices has accelerated the rapid development of edge computing and changed the nature of data processing in industries such as smart manufacturing, smart healthcare, smart transportation, and social media. Against this backdrop, Dr. John K. Zao, a former Principal Member of Technical Staff of the Internet pioneer BBN Technologies and the founding chairman of the IEEE 1934 & 1935 International Standard Working Group on Edge/Fog Computing and Networking Architecture, teamed up with Professor Ching-Yao Huang of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, as well as senior managers from Foxconn, Hewlett-Packard, KPMG, and ARM to establish FiduciaEdge Technologies in early 2021. FiduciaEdge focuses on the development of trusted edge computing and data privacy protection technologies. The company has been providing data security and privacy protection platforms as well as AIoT edge computing solutions to domestic and foreign government agencies, large enterprises, and medical institutions.
Dr. Zao pointed out that FiduciaEdge is betting on the booming AIoT market, and thus deployed its flagship product, FiduciaEdge Computing Platform (fECP), on the NVIDIA Jetson Edge AI platforms. The patented Trusted Rich Execution Environment (T-REE) instantiated by fECP in the Edge AI nodes that can protect both the raw data and the AI programs and models in GPU and DLA from disclosing to other programs running on the same machine. The computing processes running in the T-REEs are also protected from cyberattacks while conducting secure and private information exchanges only with authorized peers.
Deployed among the 5G Smart Lampposts in Taiwan and Hong Kong, FiduciaEdge's Trusted Edge Computing technology has become an information security benchmark for the critical infrastructures in the smart cities.
At the International Security Conference West Trade Show (ISC West 2023), FiduciaEdge and its strategic partner Vecow announced the release of the VHub Trusted Edge AI Computing System. This system integrates the FiduciaEdge Computing Platform (fECP) with Vecow's EAC-5000/EAC-3000/EAC-2000 industrial computers to provide a turnkey, trusted Edge AI computing solution. The system can run Cloud-Native AI applications on the NVIDIA NGC Catalog on Vecow's NVIDIA Jetson Xavier/Orin series industrial computers, providing users with AI model confidentiality and user data privacy protection from the cloud to the edge. The VHub systems aim at helping their customers to improve their information security capabilities and to comply with the EU GDPR and the US Cybersecurity Act.
Diversifying Capital Sources to Lay Down the Foundation for Long-Term Development
FiduciaEdge has also been very successful in its fundraising. The company has already attracted capital from the National Development Fund and the Taiwan Venture Capital Association. It also entered into a strategic partnership with a well-known Taiwan industrial computer manufacturer.
Dr. Zao said that FiduciaEdge aims at taking advantage of the endless opportunities in the Edge Computing Security market by forming strategic partnerships with key players in this field. In addition, FiduciaEdge maintains an operational presence in the Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) and regularly participates in TTA's information security-related events to identify strategic partners for potential collaboration opportunities.
In the future AIoT applications, data will be owned by its creators, while analytics will be performed under usage control through authorization. In the face of this emerging digital economy, FiduciaEdge is actively transforming itself from a solution provider to a service provider to seize the market opportunities and lay down the foundation for long-term development.
Dr. John K. Zao, Founder and Chairman of FiduciaEdge Technologies
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Features of FiduciaEdge's Trusted Edge Computing solutions
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