Managing Device Certificates Is Becoming Harder


As the number of devices connected to the Internet balloons, certificate management is becoming more complex, more essential, and significantly harder to keep track of. There are many different certificates for many different purposes, not to mention certificates that are unique to each device. And the lifetimes of those certificates may vary, making it even tougher to keep operating certifi... » read more

Security Breaches And The Defensive Mindset


Over the Christmas break, the biggest security breach ever came to light. It is assumed to be instigated by a foreign entity. The breach is known mostly as SolarWinds. SolarWinds produces network management software called Orion that is used by...well, almost everyone. The attackers inserted a backdoor into an Orion software update. You know how the operating system on your PC or Mac gets autom... » read more

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

CEO Outlook: 2021


The new year will be one of significant transition and innovation for the chip industry, but there are so many new applications and market segments that broad generalizations are becoming less meaningful. Unlike in years past, where sales of computers or smart phones were a good indication of how the chip industry would fare, end markets have both multiplied and splintered, greatly increasin... » read more

Why It’s So Hard To Stop Cyber Attacks On ICs


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss security risks across multiple market segments with Helena Handschuh, security technologies fellow at Rambus; Mike Borza, principal security technologist for the Solutions Group at Synopsys; Steve Carlson, director of aerospace and defense solutions at Cadence; Alric Althoff, senior hardware security engineer at Tortuga Logic; and Joe Kiniry, princi... » read more

Make Hardware Strong With CWE


What is a weakness? And why should we care? These questions are relevant in probably any field or context you may think of, well beyond engineering or electronics. While in some cases the first-level answers might be obvious, in many others they are not. Generally, weaknesses are considered bad things that can lead to malfunctions, injuries, and other undesirable situations. In many cases, they... » read more

New Security Approaches, New Threats


New and different approaches to security are gaining a foothold as the life expectancy for advanced chips increases, and as emerging technologies such as quantum computing threaten to crack even the most complex encryption schemes. These approaches include everything from homomorphic encryption, where data is processed without being decrypted, to different ways of sending and receiving data ... » read more

Safeguarding Automotive Electronics


Modern automobiles can have up to 100 Electronic Control Units (ECUs) depending on their class, make, and model, with the number of ECUs rising even higher in the case of electric vehicles. An ECU is an embedded system in the car’s electronics. They are used to control all the vehicle's functions, including engine, powertrain, transmission, brakes, suspension, dashboard, entertainment system ... » read more

Capabilities In CAP, CHERI, And Morello


At the recent Arm DevSummit, one of the presentations mentioned CHERI and the Arm Morello board in passing. This was in the context of using capabilities (perhaps) in some future Arm processors to increase the amount of memory safety, and to protect against vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown. I'd never heard of either, so I was intrigued and decided to look into the details. But the f... » read more

Effective Configuration Of Security Tools


To do a job well, you need the right tools. But it’s just as important—perhaps even more so—to use those tools correctly. A hammer will make things worse in your construction project if you’re trying to use it as a screwdriver or a drill. The same is true in software development. The intricacies of coding and the fact that it’s done by humans means that throughout the software deve... » read more

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