Hardware Security Hardware security focuses on attacks on and protection measures in integrated circuits, microchips, as well as modules of several microchips on circuit boards. The main tasks are divided into the defense against attackers with physical access to their targets and the provision of a basic hardware security layer on which further protective mechanisms, e.g., for the protection of operating systems, can be built.
The focus is on security evaluation in the lab, on securing and integrating microcontrollers and secure elements, tampering protection, and on the reliable use of system-on-chips and FPGAs. In this context, research is conducted and published in areas of side-channel analysis of cryptographic implementations, fault attacks, hardware penetration testing, physical-unclonable functions (PUF), and the use of machine learning. The results extend the state of the art in evaluation and protection measures. This distinctive spectrum of expertise and the many years of experience, as well as the corresponding equipment landscape with tooling in the laboratory, allow complex systems to be examined for vulnerabilities and individual security solutions to be designed.