Meltdown And Spectre, One Year Later


About this time last year, reports surfaced about security attacks on today’s most popular microprocessors (μPs). Researchers called them Meltdown, Spectre gaining widespread attention. Today, however, the industry and especially μP vendors have made some progress toward stemming these vulnerabilities. Here is my analysis as we enter into 2019. When it comes to these vulnerabilities, we ... » read more

What Does Cybersecurity Have To Do With Semiconductors?


More than ever, electronic devices are critical to everyday life and semiconductor chips are the brains inside the devices that run the world. They wake us in the morning, keep us up to date with the news, emails and conversations, handle our daily chores, and even keep us alive in the hospitals. For example, laptops, smartphones, the Internet, the banks, automobile controls and an endless list... » read more

Building Security into the Smart Home Devices with a Hardware Root of Trust


The growth in the semiconductor industry over the past years has been driven heavily by the storage and compute needs on smartphones, computers, servers and data centers. These conventional drivers are set to change. New-age technologies like big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) will fuel the demand for the future growth in semiconductors. Not only is IoT assi... » read more

Establishing the Root of Trust for the Internet of Things


The Internet of Things (IoT) is a quickly emerging ecosystem of applications, products and services in which both large and small devices connect to the internet. These new IoT devices will be embedded into diverse applications ranging from home security and home automation to manufacturing—and more. Protecting the data collected from these dispersed IoT endpoints presents a myriad of challen... » read more

NIST’s Considerations For ‘Cybersecuring’ The Internet Of Things


Experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have kicked off an initiative to support the development and application of standards, guidelines, and related tools to improve the cybersecurity of connected devices and the environments in which they are deployed. NIST’s Cybersecurity for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Privacy Engineering Programs drafted a report ... » read more

Effectively Fighting Fake Medical Products


Counterfeit goods have long existed. The worldwide ‘black market’ for brand-name items like purses and sunglasses is estimated to exceed $460B (Los Angeles Times, 2017). While fashion brands make up the majority of this illicit market, a very concerning trend is the rising amount of counterfeit medical products, including equipment, medicines, and vaccines. The World Health Organization ... » read more

Right-Sized Security


Security is a key design consideration of any connected product. Nefarious parties can and will attempt to exploit security flaws in order to capture sensitive data, gain device control, or for a myriad of other reasons. When considering security needs and implementation in their systems, Device OEMs must balance a number of factors. Security is obviously a very important factor; however, de... » read more

Securing IoT Edge Devices


It certainly isn’t any secret that the industry continues to be challenged when it comes to adopting and implementing practical IoT security solutions. However, it is important to understand that IoT edge devices typically only have basic resources, such as reduced CPU processing power and a minimal amount of RAM and flash memory. This means there are limited compute capabilities available fo... » read more

Evaluating Side-Channel Vulnerabilities


By Bart Stevens and Gary Kenworthy In a book chapter titled “Security of Crypto IP Core: Issues and Countermeasures,” authors Debapriya Basu Roy and Debdeep Mukhopadhyay recently explored various side-channel vulnerabilities that can be exploited by an attacker. “An adversary can observe the power consumption, timing performance, electromagnetic radiation or even acoustic behavior o... » read more

Bypassing Encryption With Side-Channel Attacks


Devices and systems that implement robust encryption/decryption algorithms using cryptographic keys were historically considered secure. Nevertheless, there is a category of attacks that simply ignore the mathematic properties of a cryptographic system – and instead focuses on its physical implementation in hardware. This vector is known as side-channel attacks, which are commonly referred... » read more

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