Coordinated by Infineon Technologies, the research project "Hardware/software design and co-verification methods for unique electronic component identification" (VE-VIDES), involving twelve partners from the research and electronics industry, has started to develop a holistic security concept for the IoT. The aim of VE-VIDES is to systematically identify potential security gaps already at the design stage and to use reliable, automatically generated mechanisms to protect electronic systems against attacks. The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
"We rely on electronic systems in almost every aspect of our lives and work. These systems make our lives easier, safer and more environmentally friendly. Weneed reliable electronics if we really want to be able to rely on them," says Infineon's Djones Lettnin, head of the alliance project. "At VE-VIDES, our goal is to ensure the reliability of system hardware by taking into account direct interfaces with reliable software components and firmware."
The reliability of a system and all its sub-components must be planned and ensured when designing the architecture. VE-VIDES is therefore looking for reliable development and testing processes that give electronic systems verifiable and, where possible, quantifiable protection against attacks.
But which attack scenarios are important to defend against? Internet attacks (hacking), where intentionally embedded backdoors and Trojans, or accidentally overlooked vulnerabilities, are exploited to change the functionality of the target system or steal data stored within the system itself, and electronic, optical or physical attacks on integrated circuits, where the intention is to steal intellectual property or read or modify data illegally.
The leading institution for cataloguing computer security vulnerabilities, CVE-MITRE, predicts a potential reduction of 43% in overall system vulnerability when reliability vulnerabilities have already been eliminated at the hardware level 2. System-level approaches, including access restrictions and redundancy, currently help protect against attacks and reduce security risks.
VE-VIDES applies a holistic safety concept using innovative IP design and verification flow to ensure the reliability of safety-critical electronic systems in particular. The design methods, tool chains and test suites that emerge from this approach will provide a solid foundation for future electronics development tools.
VE-VIDES follows an application-oriented approach, bringing together companies from major industries such as Automotive and Industry 4.0 with suppliers, development and research partners.
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