Malicious Code In The IoT


Fundamentally, malicious code families are initially comprised of one or more distinct malicious code samples. For clarity, malicious code is, globally used as an umbrella term for all types of malevolent program code. However, for this article, the term is being applied to static code and not morphing codes, which were discussed in a previous article. This discussion focuses on the type of mal... » read more

Smartphones Show Their Weaknesses


According to researchers at the University of Michigan, a weakness believed to exist in Android, Windows and iOS operating systems could be used to obtain personal information from unsuspecting users. This hack was demonstrated in an Android phone and was successful between 82 and 92% of the time on six of seven popular apps that were tested. Gmail, CHASE Bank and H&R Block were among those ... » read more

How Code Is Embedded


By Ambuj Kumar, System Architect at Rambus Cryptography Research Division Today, chip development and manufacturing processes have become exponentially complex. A typical chip may include dozens of semiconductor IPs, using various EDA tools, and developed around the globe,. The chip itself goes through very complex lifecycle from RTL through netlist, GDS data, wafer, and packaged die, to e... » read more

End-To-End Security


As the things we use every day get both connected and smarter, the sensitivity and potential damage caused by breaches in security becomes larger. With the new generation of connectedness, we saw a 368% rise in exposed identities last year over the year prior with 552 million leaked identities in 2013, according to the 2014 Internet Security Threat Report. Weak security is such an issue that... » read more

Week 12: A New Path For The DAC Pavilion


Most early mornings, I take my two Miniature Schnauzers for a long walk in Portland’s Forest Park. For those of you new to Portland, our Forest Park is the largest urban forest in the United States, with more than 5,000 acres and 80 beautiful hiking trails and paths. It is wonderful way to start the day, with the blue sky framed by the deep green foliage. It’s still fairly quiet at 7:00 am,... » read more

Week 11: Fishing For Volunteers


Next weekend is Hood to Coast, one of the largest and longest relay races in the world — and one that, like DAC, is only possibly thanks to legions of volunteers. The trailer for this 2011 documentary does a good job capturing the race’s atmosphere. (The full version of the film is available on iTunes and Amazon. By the way, who’s ready to sign up to do the documentary about DAC?) Hood to... » read more

Week 10: Tallying It Up


I’m sticking with the theme of financial housekeeping given the DAC-related meeting I’m off to this week. Several of us on the executive committee are getting together to audit the 2014 conference and begin budget planning for the 52nd DAC. Prosaic stuff, I know, though it’s an important part of being good stewards to our main sponsors, who I blogged about two weeks ago. Of course we’re... » read more

Week 9: Look Out The Window


When I grew up I was considered a rather difficult child. I couldn’t focus on a single task for long and sitting in the classroom, especially in elementary school, was sheer agony. I vividly remember one morning in third grade when, in the middle of a math test, I looked out the window and noticed a helicopter flying by. This was a notably more interesting fact than the numbers and equations ... » read more

Chip Security Features Abound…But Are They Enough?


There are a number of security features to protect devices today from attack that SoC design team can include, some of which extract only a small cost to the power and performance. A few of these include the following, according to Bernard Murphy, CTO at Atrenta: --Secure boot, which is a very common thing in embedded systems now in which there are trusted execution environments (TEE) to... » read more

Infrastructure, Then Integration


In any business and in any business segment, you have to start somewhere and then figure out what the likely end points will be and how to get there. It’s no different with the Internet of Things, except that the integration of different markets or applications is rather fuzzy at the moment. For example, it’s pretty easy to predict the possibilities for a car. It will likely move from co... » read more

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