Summary
Researchers at UCLA have developed a novel bus architecture to protect integrated circuit (IC) systems against real-time Trojan attacks, without incurring high cost in terms of bus resources and performances
Background
As the complexity and size of communications system-on-chip (SoC) exponentially grow, companies are increasingly outsourcing the design and manufacturing process. However, along with its significantly lower fabrication cost, outsourcing renders ensuring the security of the design difficult. There is a growing threat of Trojan attacks, in which an IC design is surreptitiously and maliciously altered.
Innovation
Researchers at UCLA have developed a novel set of countermeasures that can be incorporated into integrated circuits to identify and stop Trojan attacks. The method stops attacks that occur without any advanced warning, in a chip that was incorrectly believed to be free of any hidden malicious circuitry. Through implementing a secure SoC bus architecture that is compatible with traditional designs, the system is successfully protected against real-time Trojan attacks, without incurring high costs in terms of bus resources and performances.
Applications
Advantages