It is estimated that hardware (HW) intellectual property piracy induces almost an order of magnitude higher loss when compared to software piracy cost and greatly facilitates both software and entertainment data piracy. In addition, HW vulnerabilities can be exploited for security attacks, especially the increasing threat of HW malware attacks (malicious or unintentional alterations of design specifications that compromise the correctness of the functionality under specific conditions) due to business models moving to external foundries and assembly houses. The strategic objective of this project is to give impetus to research on the protection against HW malware attacks and piracy with a multi-pronged attack that includes the development of both the conceptual foundation and several practical HW protection techniques.
The intellectual merit of this project is the development of HW protection techniques that leverage the manufacturing variability (MV) inherent in modern fabrication processes and the resulting uniqueness of every manufactured integrated circuit (IC). This project is developing: (i) HW malware detection techniques considering only a single IC under very mild statistical assumptions about MV, and (ii) active HW metering protocols that prevent foundries from distributing unauthorized design copies by integrating MV into the functionality of the targeted design in such a way that only the designer can issue a key that unlocks the design after power up so that it becomes functional.
The broader impacts of this project are that it will form the basis for a new industry that ensures HW integrity in a complex horizontal IC business model. In addition, this project is exposing both undergraduate and graduate students to these increasingly important topics and providing research opportunities for underrepresented students.
