Cyber security experts in Abu Dhabi have found a way to create an “unhackable” electronic chip that could potentially be used in phones, cars and computers.
With the evolution of technology and manufacturing process giving way to less safety, researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi have just received a grant to deploy their work into a solution.
“This is the first prototype for a chip that has security features built in at the hardware level,” said Ozgur Sinanoglu, associate dean of engineering and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the university. “The purpose of this chip is a proof-of-concept to show that we can take any chip design, apply our software on the design to lock [it], and create trustworthy locked chips that are resilient to hardware-level threats such as counterfeiting, piracy, reverse-engineering and tampering.”
His research at the university’s Centre for Cyber Security on hardware security and trust is being funded by the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Defence and the UAE-owned semiconductor manufacturing company Global Foundries, as well as Mubadala Technology.
“We take smart devices for granted but can we really trust them?” asked prof Sinanoglu, who is also the director for design at the excellence lab at the university. “When hackers break into certain devices, they want to share that with everyone so they come up with a set of instructions published on a website. It goes viral and it’s a huge revenue loss for the company.
“Up until a decade ago, this is mainly what hardware security was about – chips with secret assets for people to extract or manipulate this secret information.”
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Implications of breach are serious as such chips are found in phones, cars, computers, airplanes, nuclear power plants, medical devices and critical safety and security applications. “So once our trust is compromised on these chips, then it’s compromised on pretty much all applications that [almost] control our lives one way or another,” he said. “Everything used to be centralised in one controlled facility under the control of a few people but now, the process on a single chip spans across the globe, various teams and different companies.”
He spoke of Apple, which has headquarters in California but sources design facilities in Europe, China and India, fabricates in South Korea, tests in Taiwan and assembles its packaging in China.
“Because the flow is highly distributed today, people are concerned about a variety of things,” he said. “We’re talking about all sorts of piracy problems to be able to control chips remotely, or disable them, or leak information from them.”
The new chip ensures a secure platform from start to finish in terms of the hardware.
“If the hardware is compromised, you can have the strongest operation system but you can’t talk about a trustworthy system,” Mr Sinanoglu said. “The UAE is investing heavily in this research and we’re more confident that this will be unhackable because we have mathematical definitions and theorems backing [its] security. We were now offered a grant by the [Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency] as part of a four-university team to turn it into an actual solution that can be deployed and we are hoping to have our software solution adopted by chip design companies so they can produce trustworthy chips.”
He has also set up a platform allowing potential hackers to attempt to break in, because “crowd-sourcing is the best way to test your security”.
“Our locks are in there but they don’t know the secret key,” he added. “We give them virtual access to the chip too but the idea is to see whether someone with this information can break it. We expect no one to.”
Experts said hardware is an area sometimes overlooked in terms of cyber security.
“It’s an issue that is forgotten about,” said Dr Fadi Aloul, head of computer science and engineering at the American University of Sharjah. “Hardware also has bugs and today, with the Internet of Things, those are also being targeted, so it is needed with new smart chips.
“The closer the security measures are to the hardware, the harder it is for the hackers to really take advantage of this chip.”
However, Dr Aloul also said that “unhackable” is very hard to say as the general rule of security is that there is no perfectly secure system. “We can say it’s very hard to hack, but nothing is impossible,” he said. “Given the time and resources, a weakness, like a vulnerability, can be found and exploited.”
Matthew Cochran, chairman of the Defence Services Marketing Council, said security must be holistic as “you are only as strong as the weakest link”.
“Chip security and hardening is fundamental to this as everything else above it in the stack is dependent on the chip not being compromised,” he said. “There is no point in having a secure operating system and encryption if the chip control of all these functions is accessible by [criminals].”
Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
How to help or find other cats to adopt
The%20Hunger%20Games%3A%20The%20Ballad%20of%20Songbirds%20%26%20Snakes
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Company%20profile
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The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The specs: 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
Price, base / as tested Dh220,000 / Dh320,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission 10-speed automatic
Power 421hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 678Nm @ 3,750rpm
Fuel economy, combined 14.1L / 100km
SWEET%20TOOTH
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
McIlroy's recent struggles
Last six stroke-play events (First round score in brackets)
Arnold Palmer Invitational Tied for 4th (74)
The US Masters Tied for 7th (72)
The Players Championship Tied for 35th (73)
US Open Missed the cut (78)
Travellers Championship Tied for 17th (67)
Irish Open Missed the cut (72)
DMZ facts
- The DMZ was created as a buffer after the 1950-53 Korean War.
- It runs 248 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and is 4km wide.
- The zone is jointly overseen by the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea.
- It is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.
- Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at a building in Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to stop the Korean War.
- Panmunjom is 52km north of the Korean capital Seoul and 147km south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
- Former US president Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom in 1993, while Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ in 1983, George W. Bush in 2002 and Barack Obama visited a nearby military camp in 2012.
- Mr Trump planned to visit in November 2017, but heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 290hp
Torque: 340Nm
Price: Dh155,800
On sale: now
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