"MORPHEUS Chip Foils Attacks From 500 Cybersecurity Experts"

A new chip, called "MORPHEUS," developed by researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M), was able to thwart sustained attacks from more than 500 cybersecurity experts as part of the Defense Advanced Research Agency's (DARPA) 'Finding Exploits to Thwart Tampering' (FETT) bug bounty program. The bug bounty program was organized jointly by DARPA, the Defense Digital Service (DDS), and the crowdsourced security platform Synack. According to the U-M researchers, MORPHEUS rapidly randomizes elements of code and data, which makes it more difficult for hackers to compromise chips as they need such components to take over the hardware. The team has been able to make the chip's code churn once every 50 milliseconds, allowing it to foil hacking attempts from the most sophisticated automated tools significantly faster than required. Through the use of this chip, the information needed to exploit a discovered vulnerability disappears almost immediately. MORPHEUS' capabilities had previously been demonstrated in a lab environment, but the FETT program was the first time that a group of external cybersecurity experts explored the chip. The researchers are adapting the chip to safeguard medical data, genomic data, biometrics, financial credentials, and other sensitive information in the cloud. DARPA has given an A rating: 'Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited' to the MORPHEUS chip for its success at foiling every attack launched against it. This article continues to discuss the techniques and successful demonstration of the MORPHEUS chip.

Computing reports "MORPHEUS Chip Foils Attacks From 500 Cybersecurity Experts"