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Hardware Design Practices For Modern Hardware

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Hardware is the basis of any computing system and, as such, should be the first part of the system to consider security. The research presented in Trustworthy Hardware from Untrusted Components looks at the present state of hardware security, analyzes the vulnerabilities and possible solutions, and presents an alternative approach to ensure that the end-result of the hardware design process is a secure and trustworthy piece of hardware. There are many factors that contribute to the current susceptibility of hardware to attacks. Modern hardware design practices incorporate the use of more third-party intellectual property (IP) components, such as USB components. Modern hardware design practices require that a piece of hardware pass through thousands of engineers in the stages from design to manufacture. Modern hardware is much more complex than what has been manufactured in the past. Finally, modern hardware is designed by teams with relatively few designers for each subcomponent. In an idealistic world, hardware would be designed and manufactured in a single secure location with trusted personnel handling the process from inception to manufacture; however, this idea is ineffective and cost-prohibitive making it unlikely to be put into practice. Hardware design follows a very similar process as the software engineering lifecycle and even has many of the same steps. For instance, the first step in both processes is to gather the specifications for the requirements. The

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