Modern Microelectronics and Cybersecurity
We should also note a number of obvious threats that have appeared relatively recently in the development of both global and domestic microelectronics and logically follow from this new for us chip design paradigm. Figuratively speaking, a threat is an unsolved problem.
The Trojan threat must be put in first place here. It was a consequence of another obvious trend in the development of microelectronics – the ongoing process of transfer of semiconductor production from the United States to the countries of Southeast Asia – China, Taiwan, South Korea.
Foreign researchers showed theoretically and experimentally back in 2005 that a so-called hardware trojan can be introduced into any microcircuit, without the knowledge of its developer, at virtually any stage of creation – from the design stage to the moment of manufacture and assembly. This Trojan can execute at the command of its master a variety of unauthorized and hidden from the observer functions – to transfer to the host any information, change the modes of operation, electrical modes of the chip (up to its partial or complete failure). Getting into electronic boards of modern information-commutation devices, power-supply systems of megapolises, high-precision weapon control systems, security systems of nuclear power stations, etc. these charged microcircuits are capable not only to organize transmission of secret information to the host, but also to intercept control of such objects completely, up to rendering them inoperable. Therefore, a new direction in microelectronics – ensuring the security of microcircuits – has emerged. Building on this new direction, the Ministries of Defense of the United States, Britain, France and other NATO countries have developed and since 2010 fully implemented a set of normative and technical measures to protect and counter this threat. An important part of this complex is the Joint Federal Circuit Security Center (JFAC), which was created as a structural subdivision of the U.S. Department of Defense. Similar centers function in other developed countries.
The absolute majority of chips produced both in the USA and in SEA countries undergo full verification (certification) in the laboratories of this center before delivery to complete systems of critical importance. Besides military and space microcircuits, such centers have microcircuits for commercial and industrial applications (for banking, navigation, mobile communications, ground and air transport, fuel and energy complex, etc.).