The counterfeit market for semiconductors is real, sizable and growing. Industry analysts peg the current market for fake semiconductors at $75B. Counterfeit chips pose great risk to driver comfort and safety, to say nothing of the severe negative consequences they present to automaker revenues and brand. The good news is there are immediate and cost-effective measures available to secure the semiconductor supply chain and stop counterfeiters in their tracks.
Security IP
Combating Counterfeit Semiconductors in the Military Supply Chain
The counterfeit market for semiconductors is real, sizable and growing. The Senate Armed Services Committee found over 1,800 cases where counterfeit electronic components were introduced into U.S. military hardware including airplanes, helicopters and missiles. Counterfeit chips pose serious risk to military equipment and the service personnel who depend on that hardware to perform their mission.
Protecting Computing Systems in a Post-Meltdown/Spectre World
When Jann Horn of Google’s Project Zero posted a detailed blog titled “Reading privileged memory with a side-channel,” it set off a firestorm of activity as the post confirmed that secret information inside a computer could be accessed via two different attacks, Meltdown and Spectre. Essentially, both attacks utilize CPU data cache timing to efficiently exploit and leak information from the system. This could lead to – at worst – arbitrary virtual memory read vulnerabilities across local security boundaries in various contexts.
Full Disk Encryption of Solid State Drives and Root of Trust
File encryption, file system encryption and full disk encryption (FDE) are methods offered by the industry to allow users to protect their data stored on non-volatile storage devices, such as Solid State Disks (SSD). The main feature of FDE is to protect stored system and user date from unauthorized reading, writing, alteration, moving or rolling back. However, extended security features are key to securing FDE implementation.
Interac: Securing Canada’s Mobile Payments
The Blockchain – Not As Secure As You Think
The blockchain has the potential to touch all aspects of our everyday lives, from buying and trading cryptocurrency, to securing vital healthcare records, to proving that a tomato really is organic. The security challenges, specifically the vulnerability of private keys faced by the cryptocurrency market, prove that before the transformative impact of blockchain technology can be realized, a companion security measure to protect the assets themselves is needed.