Hardware-based Computer Security Techniques to Defeat Hackers: From Biometrics to Quantum Cryptography

Chapter 4

THE QUALITIES OF WORKABLE SECURITY SOLUTIONS

The preceding chapters have introduced two important points:

• Pure software security solutions are fraught with attack points and inherent weaknesses.
• Hardware-based security technologies dramatically reduce or eliminate those weaknesses through the introduction of non-algorithmic processes that are truly random. To the extent that these hardware devices can be physically secured against tampering, they can offer significantly stronger overall system security when combined with carefully developed software.

Any security-based application must employ both hardware and software and not rely solely upon software. Software is just an application, and therefore it can be broken.

Over time, key players in the computer-security field have been migrating more towards hardware-based solutions in order to supply their customers with secure systems that protect their mission-critical information and reduce risks due to loss, theft, or hacking. These solutions introduce a variety of approaches that implement the advantages offered by hardware-based security.

It is important to note, however, that just because a security element is implemented on a device, the implementation does not by itself guarantee improved security. Attack vectors for each of the following approaches will be presented in a manner similar to that of the preceding chapters.

SECURE COPROCESSORS

Any security system must be constructed with the assumption that the device ...