By John Boyd

With the coming Internet of Things (IoT) in mind, Mitsubishi Electric, Ritsumeikan University, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency have developed a security scheme that can be used to identify individual logic chips by their “fingerprints.” The scheme provides a means of preventing device spoofing, as well as a way to authenticate embedded software running on networked devices and so prevent malicious programs from being introduced.

Chips with the same circuitry produce the same computed results when processing the same input. However, small variations in the circuitry occur due to slightly differing amounts of dopant chemicals or other materials added during the fabrication process.  These differences produce random glitches or signal variations, though without affecting the computed results. …[Read more]