Security Verification of Rambus’ CryptoManager Root of Trust by Tortuga Logic


The confidentiality and integrity of cryptographic key material is critical to maintaining system security. A hardware root of trust, such as the Rambus CryptoManager Root of Trust, is designed to securely generate, store, and employ cryptographic keys. Tortuga Logic has independently verified the policies surrounding access to keys stored within registers in the CryptoManager Root of Trust usi... » read more

Security Implications Of Quantum Computing


The US Government just stepped up the push for quantum computing with an award of $625 million in funding to create five quantum information research centers. Industry and academic institutions will contribute $300 million toward this effort with the remainder drawn from the $1.2 billion earmarked in the 2018 law: the National Quantum Initiative Act. The race to quantum computing is a global on... » read more

The Road To Post-Quantum Cryptography


Quantum computing offers the promise of tremendous leaps in processing power over current digital computers. But for the public-key cryptography algorithms used today for e-commerce, mobile payments, media streaming, digital signatures and more, quantum computing represents an existential event. Quantum computers may be able to break the widely used RSA and ECC (Elliptic-Curve Cryptography) alg... » read more

What Makes A Chip Tamper-Proof?


The cyber world is the next major battlefield, and attackers are busily looking for ways to disrupt critical infrastructure. There is widespread proof this is happening. “Twenty-six percent of the U.S. power grid was found to be hosting Trojans," said Haydn Povey, IAR Systems' general manager of embedded security solutions. "In a cyber-warfare situation, that's the first thing that would b... » read more

Taking A Closer Look At Side Channel Attacks


In last month’s Semiconductor Engineering article, we explored the basics of side channel attacks (SCAs). As we discussed, all cryptographic algorithms are subject to side channel attacks, with vulnerabilities extending across all platforms and form factors. In this article, we’ll be taking a closer look at the two primary categories of side channel attacks: simple power analysis (SPA) and ... » read more

A Glossary For Chip And Semiconductor IP Security And Trust


A significant portion of electronic system vulnerabilities involves hardware. In 2015 the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE-MITRE) database recorded 6,488 vulnerabilities. A considerable proportion (43%) can be classified as software-assisted hardware vulnerabilities (see Fig. 1). The discovery of Meltdown and Spectre in January 2018 has sparked a series of investigations into hardware ... » read more

System Bits: July 30


A camera that sees around corners Researchers at Stanford University developed a camera system that can detect moving objects around a corner, looking at single particles of light reflected on a wall. “People talk about building a camera that can see as well as humans for applications such as autonomous cars and robots, but we want to build systems that go well beyond that,” said Gordon... » read more

Holes In AI Security


Mike Borza, principal security technologist in Synopsys’ Solutions Group, explains why security is lacking in AI, why AI is especially susceptible to Trojans, and why small changes in training data can have big impacts on many devices. » read more

Quantum Random Numbers Future-Proof Encryption


It may be a decade or more before quantum computers become common enough that we'll find out whether "post-quantum cryptography" will stand up to genuine quantum computers. In the meantime, some quantum researchers are peeling off specific functions and turning them into products or companies so that it's possible to take advantage of the potential of quantum computers without actually havin... » read more

Quantum Computing Becoming Real


Quantum computing will begin rolling out in increasingly useful ways over the next few years, setting the stage for what ultimately could lead to a shakeup in high-performance computing and eventually in the cloud. Quantum computing has long been viewed as some futuristic research project with possible commercial applications. It typically needs to run at temperatures close to absolute zero,... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →