Last year, there were several security incidents affecting billions of chips. This has led researchers to look for more effective ways to secure them. One of these ways is an approach, known as Morpheus , that Todd Austin, a professor at the University of Michigan, is working on. The researcher-professor aims to prevent hackers from gaining access to microchips . How does he do this? He constantly changes the code chip's .
Austin described, at a conference, exactly how the prototype Morpheus chip works.
Morpheus constantly makes changes to the code elements that hackers need to gain access to if they want to attack. Importantly, the changes do not cause any problems for software applications powered by the processor.
Changes to the code elements occur every 50 milliseconds, which means it can thwart even the most powerful automated hacking tools. Therefore, even if hackers find a vulnerability, they won't have time to exploit it. By the time they gain access to the necessary information, it will have changed.
Linton Salmon of DARPA, who is also involved in the Morpheus project, says that this will prevent a variety of cyberattacks. In addition, the Morpheus chip will be able to detect new types of attacks and make the necessary changes to the code depending on the severity of the threat.
Disadvantages
The downside of this technology is reduced performance. In fact, to operate effectively and without a drop in performance, it requires the use of larger chips. The military may not care about the reduced performance, as having greater safety on the battlefield is more important. Companies and consumers, however, may not share the same view.
Austin and Valeria Bertacco, a colleague from the University of Michigan, founded a company, called Agita Labs, from which customers will be able to purchase Morpheus.
Austin said the chip is working effectively and has prevented all known threats and attacks.
Of course, there will still be a lot of testing to fully test its effectiveness. A team of American security experts will be testing the chip to see if it can breach and bypass its defenses. In addition, Austin will upload some of the code online for other researchers to look at and check for vulnerabilities.
