UK-SPS Seminar - 10th November Title: Physically Unclonable Functions

Title: Physically Unclonable Functions: Design Principles, Applications and Outstanding Challenges

Speaker: Basel Halak (Southampton)

Abstract: Physically Unclonable Functions (PUF) are a class of hardware security primitives, constructed to exploit the intrinsic variations in the integrated circuit fabrication process to give each silicon chip a unique identifier, in other words, a hardware-based fingerprint. Their relatively simple architectures and small overheads can answer many of the security challenges facing computing devices, especially those operating in energy-constrained and/or physically exposed environments. The first part of this talk provides a comprehensive overview on the design principles of physically unclonable functions and their main evaluation metrics. The second part explains why we need the PUF technology and how to use it to build robust defence mechanisms against emerging security threats, giving specific examples that include secure cryptographic keys generation/storage, authentication protocols, anti-counterfeit design for integrated circuits (IC) and low-cost secure sensors. The final part outlines the outstanding security challenges facing PUF technology and their potential countermeasures, including mathematical modelling attacks using machine-learning algorithms, side channel attacks and physical cloning attacks. The talk concludes with a summary of learned lessons and directions for the future.

Bio: Dr Basel Halak is the director of the embedded systems and IoT program at the University of Southampton, a visiting scholar at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, a visiting professor at the Kazakh-British Technical University, an Industrial Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a National Teaching Fellow of the Advance Higher Education(HE) Academy. Dr Halak's publications include over 80-refereed conference and journal papers, and authored three books, including the first textbook on Physically Unclonable Functions. His research expertise includes evaluation of security of hardware devices, development of appropriate countermeasures, the development of mathematical formalisms of reliability issues in CMOS circuits (e.g. crosstalk, radiation, ageing), and the use of fault tolerance techniques to improve the robustness of electronics systems against such issues. Dr Halak lectures on digital design, Secure Hardware and Cryptography, supervises several MSc and PhD students, and is the ECS Exchange Coordinator. He is also leading European Masters in Embedded Computing Systems (EMECS), a two-year course run in collaboration with Kaiserslautern University in Germany and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (electronics and communication). Dr Halak serves on several technical program committees such as HOST, IEEE DATE, IVSW, ICCCA, ICCCS, MTV, and EWME. He is an associate editor of IEEE Access and an editor of the IET Circuit Devices and System journal. He is also a member of the hardware security-working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Please feel free to forward to others who might be interested. 

UK-SPS is an inter-university seminar series on cyber security and privacy. Seminar details are also advertised on our website, calendar and Twitter, and recordings will be available on our YouTube channel afterwards. 

Last modified: Mon, 15 Nov 2021 11:29:17 GMT