Is This the Death Knell for PKI? I think so…

Is This the Death Knell for PKI? I think so…
by Bill Montgomery on 06-10-2018 at 7:00 am

It was 1976 when distinguished scholars Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman published the first practical method of establishing a shared secret-key over an authenticated communications channel without using a prior shared secret. The Diffie-Hellman methodology became known as Public Key Infrastructure or PKI.

That was… Read More


Lipstick on the Digital Pig

Lipstick on the Digital Pig
by Bill Montgomery on 12-27-2017 at 12:00 pm

I have a lot of friends in the real estate industry, and two of the most common sales tactics are to create “curb appeal,” and to “stage” the interior of the residence being sold. Curb appeal, of course, refers to making the home looks as appealing as possible upon first impression. Update the landscaping. Add flowers. Make sure theRead More


Think your future historical encrypted data is secure? Think again…

Think your future historical encrypted data is secure? Think again…
by Bill Montgomery on 02-18-2017 at 7:00 am

It’s been 32 years since the successful sci-fi comedy, Back to the Future, saw 17-year old Marty McFly – played by Michael J. Fox – accidentally travel 30 years back in time to 1955. The film was a box-office smash, as audiences worldwide delighted in McFly’s antics, only to soon realize that the cool kid from the future was jeopardizing… Read More


Quantum Code-Cracking Takes Another Hit: Lattice-based Cryptography

Quantum Code-Cracking Takes Another Hit: Lattice-based Cryptography
by Bernard Murphy on 04-24-2016 at 12:00 pm

Public-key crypto-systems rely these days on approaches founded in mathematical methods which are provably hard to crack. The easiest to understand requires factorization of a key based on the product of two large prime numbers. Much has been made recently of the ability of quantum computers to crack this style of encryption.… Read More


Synopsys Aquires Security IP Company Elliptic

Synopsys Aquires Security IP Company Elliptic
by Paul McLellan on 07-01-2015 at 7:00 am

On Monday Synopsys announced that it was acquiring Elliptic Technologies. They have one of the largest portfolios of security IP consisting of both semiconductor IP blocks and software. Increasingly, security requires a multi-layer approach involving both secure blocks on the chip and a software stack on top of that.

Elliptic’s… Read More


Security All Around in SoCs at DAC

Security All Around in SoCs at DAC
by Pawan Fangaria on 04-06-2015 at 12:00 am

Last month I was on my way to write a detailed article on important aspects to look at while designing an SoC. This was important in the new context of modern SoCs that go much beyond the traditional power, performance and area (PPA) requirements. I had about 12-13 parameters in my list that I couldn’t cover in one go, so I put the write-up… Read More


Is the Internet of Things just a toy?

Is the Internet of Things just a toy?
by Bill Boldt on 01-03-2015 at 5:00 pm

picture1

The Internet of Things (IoT) is arguably the most hyped concept since the pre-crash dot-com euphoria. You may recall some of the phrases from back then such as “the new economy,” “new paradigm,” “get large or get lost,” “consumer-driven navigation,” “tailored web experience,” “it’s different now,” among countless other mediaRead More


Getting up close and personal with symmetric session key exchange

Getting up close and personal with symmetric session key exchange
by Bill Boldt on 12-03-2014 at 2:00 am

columns1

In today’s world, the three pillars of security are confidentiality, integrity (of the data), and authentication (i.e. “C.I.A.”). Fortunately, Atmel CryptoAuthentication crypto engines with secure key storage can be used in systems to provide all three of these.

Focusing on the confidentiality pillar, in a symmetric system… Read More


There’s good news about BadUSB

There’s good news about BadUSB
by Bill Boldt on 10-22-2014 at 4:00 am

The good news about the recently-revealed BadUSB is that there actually is a cure: Hardware crypto engines were invented to protect software, firmware and hardware from exactly these types of attacks, among many others. These uber-tiny, ultra secure hardware devices can be easily and cost-effectively added to USB sticks (andRead More


Processor for Internet-of-Things (IoT)

Processor for Internet-of-Things (IoT)
by barun on 10-21-2014 at 4:00 pm

Due to increasing proliferation of sensors in our everyday lives, evolution of IoT is natural. The mix of different building blocks with different speed-power-performance constraints makes IoT as the hottest upcoming application area for semiconductor IP vendors. The System-on-Chips (SoCs) coming up in this area typically… Read More