Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive/Mobility General Motors is working on a next version of Ultium battery chemistry and announced a joint development agreement with Singapore-based SolidEnergy Systems, a lithium metal battery startup founded by a graduate of MIT. The companies plan to open a Woburn, Massachusetts prototype production line by 2023. GM’s is attempting to lower the cost of its proprietary battery tech... » read more

COVID-19 And Cybersecurity: Pay Attention To Exponential Growth!


COVID-19 and cybersecurity – you may wonder what these two seemingly very different topics have in common. I would list two: Both of them are exponential in nature, which, as a society we have difficulties grappling with – making this one of the reasons for our uneven responses. Both of them require a multi-layered solution strategy that, while it does not need to be perfect, must b... » read more

Auto OEMs Face New Competitive Threats


Automotive design and manufacturing are undergoing a fundamental shift to the left as cars increasingly are electrified and chips take over more functions formerly done by mechanical parts, setting the stage for massive disruption across a supply chain that has been in place for decades. The success of Tesla — a company that had never actually built a chip or a car — was both a surprise ... » read more

Security Provisioning Moves Out Of The Factory


Security credentials traditionally have been provisioned during chip manufacturing, often as a final part of the testing process. That's starting to change. Logistics management can be improved by pushing that process out — even as far as the on-boarding process. And simpler on-boarding can hide most of the details from the user. “The IT approach to provisioning IoT devices has primar... » read more

Securing ICs With Information Flow Analysis


Following the data has new meaning when it comes to security. Alric Althoff, senior hardware security engineer at Tortuga Logic, talks about tracking the flow of data through a hardware design over time, including what happens with roots of trust, how this works with existing tools and methodologies, and what to think about when tracing potential security risks. » read more

DRAM’s Persistent Threat To Chip Security


A well-known DRAM vulnerability called "rowhammer," which allows an assailant to disrupt or take control of a system, continues to haunt the chip industry. Solutions have been tried, and new ones are being proposed, but the potential for a major attack persists. First discovered some five years ago, most of the efforts to eliminate the "rowhammer" threat have done little more than mitigate t... » read more

Longer Chip Lifecycles Increase Security Threat


The longer chips and electronic systems remain in use, the more they will need to be refreshed with software and firmware updates. That creates a whole new level of security risks, ranging from over-the-air intercepts to compromised supply chains. These problems have been escalating as more devices are connected to the Internet and to each other, but it's particularly worrisome when it invol... » read more

Bridging The Gap Between Smart Cities And Autonomous Vehicles


Smart city planners and carmakers are wrestling with similar problems and goals, but they are working at very different paces and often with different technologies — despite the fact that these two worlds will need to be bridged in order to be useful. Moving traffic optimally in urban areas is critical for reducing energy consumption and accidents, and for moving emergency vehicles through... » read more

Radix Coverage For Hardware Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Guide


MITRE's hardware Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) database aggregates hardware weaknesses that are the root causes of vulnerabilities in deployed parts. A complete list can be found on the MITRE Hardware Design Webpage. Hardware CWEs are ideal to be used alongside internally developed security requirements databases and have been developed and submitted by both government and commercial design... » 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

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