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By GCN Staff
Apr 19, 2021
Researchers at Ohio State University are introducing chaos into computer chips to develop digital fingerprints that may be unique enough to foil even the most sophisticated hackers.
The new solution makes use of an emerging technology called physically unclonable functions, or PUFs, to take advantage of tiny manufacturing variations found in each computer chip. These slight variations – sometimes seen only at the atomic level – can create unique sequences of 0s and 1s that PUF researchers in the field call “secrets.”
Currently PUFs have a great but limited number of secrets, making them vulnerable to hackers that have the time and technology to break them. However, the Ohio State team has “found a way to produce an uncountably large number of secrets to use that will make it next to impossible for hackers to figure them out, even if they had direct access to the computer chip,” Daniel Gauthier, senior author of the study and physics professo
Published 12 April 2021
Researchers have found a way to use chaos to help develop digital fingerprints for electronic devices that may be unique enough to foil even the most sophisticated hackers. Just how unique are these fingerprints? The researchers believe it would take longer than the lifetime of the universe to test for every possible combination available.
Researchers have found a way to use chaos to help develop digital fingerprints for electronic devices that may be unique enough to foil even the most sophisticated hackers.
Just how unique are these fingerprints? The researchers believe it would take longer than the lifetime of the universe to test for every possible combination available.
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Researchers have found a way to use chaos to help develop digital fingerprints for electronic devices that may be unique enough to foil even the most sophisticated hackers.
Just how unique are these fingerprints? The researchers believe it would take longer than the lifetime of the universe to test for every possible combination available.
“In our system, chaos is very, very good,” said Daniel Gauthier, senior author of the study and professor of physics at The Ohio State University.
The study was recently published online in the journal IEEE Access.
The researchers created a new version of an emerging technology called physically unclonable functions, or PUFs, that are built into computer chips.