Creation, Deployment & Restrictions ImageKey
This article is about creating, deploying, and limiting an ImageKey.
1. Select the ImageKey under the encryption settings
Use the Image Creation Utility to create your image key.
The created ImageKey exists as a file on the computer system on which it was created. The Image Creation software saves the last five used / created ImageKeys, and the last used key is selected by default.
The user who generates the encrypted programming image file must select the ImageKey file as image encryption to use when generating the programming image.
An ImageKey file has the extension .imagekey by default. This file can be moved between PCs and used by multiple users. When a new PC is used to generate the image, the user selects the Select Image Encryption Key entry from the Image Encryption drop-down list and navigates to the appropriate ImageKey file.
Select your ImageKey under the encryption setting so that the generated image will only be decrypted on your selected Cyclone Programmer provided with the same key. New Cyclone's can always be provided with the ImageKey file.
2. Add programming limitations
If you want to make sure that the Cyclone should only program the image file in a certain date range, you must set the restriction in the settings. During image creation, this date range limit is set in the ProCryption Security section of the Cyclone Image Creation Utility:
Images can also be limited by the number of programs and the number of errors allowed.
3. Create an encrypted programming image
Generate the encrypted programming image and save it on the hard disk.
By default, encrypted images have the extension .esap and unencrypted images have the extension .sap
Now you can send the encrypted programming image (.esap file) electronically knowing that your valuable IP address is secured with industry standard AES / RSA encryption. Only Cyclone programmers who have been provided with their key can decrypt and use the programming image. Cyclone programmer decoding with the ImageKey "SteadyBeat_XYZ_Production" is transparent - encrypted images are loaded and work just like other programming images.
You can use the Cyclone Control Suite (GUI, Console, and SDK) to transfer the encrypted programming image to the appropriate Cyclone Programmer.
Anyone who has a copy of the encrypted image (the .esap file) can not reverse engineer the programming data stored in the image (even someone with the ImageKey can not) or the encrypted image on a Cyclone that does not work with the ImageKey Save "SteadyBeat_XYZ_Production" was saved.
Note:
ImageKeys on the PC are themselves partially encrypted so that certain parts can only be used on a Cyclone. Nevertheless, they should be handled with care as they can be loaded into any Cyclone.