Cryptographic processors are becoming the standard way to enforce data-usage policies. With the rapid expansion of broadband networks and the diffusion of high-performance digital consumer products in conjunction with advancing VLSI technologies, we have various data and secret information in all areas of our daily lives. Cryptography is an indispensable technology to protect such data from threats, and thus, cryptographic hardware is integrated in many high-tech electronic devices. Recently, however, new attacks on cryptographic hardware have appeared using side-channel information such as power dissipation, electromagnetic radiation or operating times. These attacks using side-channel information are the hottest topic in this research area. This talk will start with an overview of cryptographic hardware, and then introduce side-channel attacks on cryptographic hardware. Some recent research results will also be presented regarding the side-channel attacks.

Host: Joseph Cavallaro (cavallar@rice.edu)

Biography of Naofumi Homma:
Naofumi Homma received the Ph.D. degrees in information sciences from Tohoku University, Japan, in 2001. He is currently an Assistant Professor of the Graduate School of Information Sciences at Tohoku University. For 2002-2006, he also joined the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) as a researcher for the PRESTO project. He is a member of CRYPTREC (Cryptography Research and Evaluation Committees) working group on power analysis experiment. His research interests include computer arithmetic, high-performance VLSI computing, and cryptographic hardware.