Rambus

At Rambus, we create cutting-edge semiconductor and IP products, spanning memory and interfaces to security, smart sensors and lighting.

Elke De Mulder

Elke De Mulder

Senior Research Scientist

Research Areas: Electromagnetic Analysis, Electrical Engineering

After my Ph.D. in Electromagnetic Analysis from KU Leuven, Belgium in 2010, I came straight to Cryptography Research (CRI) in the States. The first and most famous paper in my research field has been written by CRI and as such it was a great opportunity for me to work here. I have always enjoyed figuring out how something works, picking it apart,

getting my hands on it. Many things in my home have been picked apart and wherever possible – everything is connected.

In our engineering team, we work to identify and develop new techniques for security analysis in order to make a thorough security assessment of our costumer’s products. That means we enter every customer product as a clean slate, we act as detectives and slowly but surely take the product apart as a backwards puzzle — we look for vulnerabilities, we test this, we test that, only to see how the product reacts. This gives us an indication of where and how the security can be improved. It is very important that we do our job thoroughly and that we find all vulnerabilities, big and small, because we want our costumer’s products to survive in the field.

In the CRI team we specialize in semiconductor security technologies. Our tamper- resistant ASIC designs have been successful in a range of high-threat environments and have an unparalleled security track record. Through our research we help solve many of the world’s most difficult data security problems.

With technology becoming more and more advanced and with functionality constantly increasing, it’s becoming harder for companies to understand the products they use and the security threats those products might pose. I really love what I do, we get to help big, exciting companies that are creating new products and building new markets.

Watch Elke DeMulder, Senior Research Scientist for Rambus Cryptography Research, demonstrate how field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can be compromised by side-channel attacks. Learn more about our DPA Countermeasures here.

Side-Channel Analysis Demo: FPGA Board

Education

  • Master of Electrical Engineering at KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Doctor in Electrical Engineering at KU Leuven, Belgium. Title dissertation: “Electromagnetic Techniques and Probes for Side-Channel Analysis on Cryptographic Devices”, November 2010

Research Papers

  • Elke De Mulder, Michael Hutter, Mark E. Marson, Peter Pearson: “Using Bleichenbacher”s Solution to the Hidden Number Problem to Attack Nonce Leaks in 384-Bit ECDSA”. CHES 2013: 435-452
  • W. Aerts, E. Biham, D. De Moitié, E. De Mulder, O. Dunkelman, S. Indesteege, N. Keller, B. Preneel, G. Vandenbosch, and I. Verbauwhede. A Practical Attack on KeeLoq. Journal of Cryptology 25(1), pages 136–157, 2012
  • G. Hospodar, B. Gierlichs, E. De Mulder, J. Vandewalle, and I. Verbauwhede, “Machine Learning in Side-Channel Analysis: A First Study,” Journal of Cryptographic Engineering 1(4), pp. 293-302, 2011
 

Book Chapters

  • M. Knezevic, L. Batina, E. De Mulder, J. Fan, B. Gierlichs, Y. K. Lee, R. Maes, and I. Verbauwhede, “Signal Processing for Cryptography and Security Applications,” In Handbook of Signal Processing Systems (2nd edition), S. S. Bhattacharyya, E. F. Deprettere, R. Leupers, and J. Takala (eds.), 19 pages, 2012
  • M. Knezevic, L. Batina, E. De Mulder, J. Fan, B; Gierlichs, Y. K. Lee, R. Maes, and I. Verbauwhede. Signal Processing for Cryptography and Security Applications. In Handbook of Signal Processing Systems, page 17. Springer, 2010
 

Recent Speaking Engagements

  • “Using Bleichenbacher’s Solution to the Hidden Number Problem to Attack Nonce Leaks in 384-Bit ECDSA,” CHES 2013
  • G. Hospodar, E. De Mulder, B. Gierlichs, J. Vandewalle, and I. Verbauwhede, “Least Squares Support Vector Machines for Side-Channel Analysis,” In 2nd Workshop on Constructive Side-Channel Analysis and Secure Design , COSADE, 6 pages, 2011
  • J. Fan, X. Guo, E. De Mulder, P. Schaumont, B. Preneel, and I. Verbauwhede. State-of-the-art of secure ECC implementations: a survey on known side-channel attacks and countermeasures. In 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Hardware-Oriented Security and Trust – HOST 2010, page 12, Anaheim Convention Center,CA,USA, 2010. IEEE