Apparatus and method comprising a carrier with circuit structures

Method, comprising:

• measuring a complex impedance of circuit structures on a carrier at a second time to get a second result, wherein a component to be protected, at least a further component and data lines therebetween are covered by the carrier with circuit structures;
• enabling operation of the component to be protected or judging whether unauthorized access to the component to be protected has taken place, in dependence on whether the second result matches a first result measured at a first time;
• and
• deleting data from a temporary memory when the second result does not match the first or a previous result,
• wherein the control is implemented to derive a first cryptographic key from the first result and/or to derive a second cryptographic key from the second result, and
• wherein the control further comprises a cryptographic unit implemented to use the first cryptographic key to encrypt a program or data to be stored to the component to be protected in an encrypted manner, and/or to decrypt an encrypted program stored on the component to be protected section by the selected or completely with the second cryptographic key.

Apparatus, comprising:

• a carrier with circuit structures comprising a complex impedance;
• a measurement unit implemented to measure the complex impedance of the circuit structures at a first time to get a first result, and at a later second time to get a second result;
• a control implemented to enable operation of a component or to judge whether unauthorized access to the component has taken place, in dependence on whether the first result matches the second result;
• wherein the carrier represents an electronic seal, and wherein the control is configured to judge, in dependence on whether the first result matches the second result, whether the electronic seal has been broken;
• wherein the carrier is arranged above a first part of the component and a second part of the component that are movable relative to one another;
• wherein the control is implemented to delete data from a temporary memory of the apparatus when a further result does not match the first or a previous result,
• wherein the control is implemented to derive a first cryptographic key from the first result and/or to derive a second cryptographic key from the second result, and
• wherein the control further comprises a cryptographic unit implemented to use the first cryptographic key to encrypt a program or data to be stored to the apparatus in an encrypted manner, and/or to decrypt an encrypted program stored on the apparatus section by section or completely with the second cryptographic key.