"Detecting Manipulations in Microchips"

In addition to manipulating software, attackers can also tamper with hardware. Therefore, a team from Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany, and the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) is developing techniques to detect such tampering. They are exploring detection methods for hardware Trojans. Electronic chips are embedded in many objects, and they are often designed by companies that do not operate their own production facilities. Instead, the construction plans are sent to highly specialized chip factories to be made. The designs of the chips may be modified in the factories just before production, compromising their security. In extreme instances, such hardware Trojans could enable an attacker to instantly disable parts of the telecommunications infrastructure at the touch of a button. Using an algorithm, the researchers compared construction plans for chips to electron microscope images of actual chips and looked for differences. There were deviations in 37 out of 40 cases. The researchers made all images of the chips available online for free, together with the design data and the analysis algorithms, so that other research teams could use the data to conduct more studies. This article continues to discuss the study on hardware Trojan detection. 

Ruhr University Bochum reports "Detecting Manipulations in Microchips"