EETimes.com – Pentagon, Darpa fear enemies could tamper with chips — Gee, maybe promoting the idea of moving everything offshore wasn’t such a good idea, was it? So when did these geniuses figure this out?
The U.S. government is concerned that its weapons systems have come to rely on foreign-manufactured integrated circuits which could be interfered with prior to delivery. As a result the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is soliciting research proposals under the “Trust for integrated circuits” initiative.
The heavy dependence of the U.S. military on overseas-made chips has caused discussion of how to prevent ICs being tampered with prior to delivery.
Amongst the concerns are that ICs could be doctored crudely in design or manufacture to fail early — for example by changing chemical composition, by reducing material thicknesses or placing wires too close together. Alternatively chips could be engineered to misbehave under more specialized circumstances with functional blocks serving as embedded “Trojan horses”. This raises the prospect of weapon systems that could appear to be in perfect working order during tests or deployment but which could “switch-off” in combat.
Already happens at the macro level. Search the Web for information about counterfeit hardware (marked as high strength but actually poor quality). Imagine what could happen if a counterfeit bolt or nut wound up in the mechanisms of a helicopter or airplane. Imagine counterfeit parts in your automobile–in your drivetrain, fuel systm, or suspension.
If you Google “counterfeit hardware” you’ll find stories of defective batteries, substandard memory, and even routers mimicking name brands.
There are defenses: destructive and nondestructive testing of parts to determine if the batch of parts or systems is up to spec. Unfortunately that’s expensive, takes time, and reduces the number of parts available to make computers, cars, or weapons.
This kind of thing was a documentation nightmare when I was in the Navy, for both the components used in the Nuclear propulsion plants, and the “Sub Safe” parts used in seawater systems on submarines.
Tracking systems to document the “pedigree” of components and raw materials. documentation for every batch o nuts and washers, and individual documentation for larger-sized bolts, etc.
Certified welding rod, bar stock and threaded stock used to fabricate components, etc.
Special training and certification handling, inspecting & storing parts & materials.
Inspectors to ensure the paperwork drill was followed verbatim…
Good luck doing that with mass-produced electronics chips…
but wait, that is exactly a defense contractor’s dream: boutique-sized lots of components, at a no-bid boutique price.
Put your vizu web poll here
Tin-foil hat sales are a little slow. So…
What about the Elbonian programmers coding maliciousness into popular applications? Then there’s that a secret backdoor in Checkpoint’s Firewall-1. Also, all the U.S. Navy nuclear submarines run NT4.
Actually, this may be a boon for my employer…
I work for IDT, which recently merged with ICS:
http://www.idt.com/?id=1161
And ICS has a semiconductor FAB in Worcester, MA for Military products…
http://www.mnc.com/fac.htm
Following C0D3R’s lead in Dilbert references: “ka-ching, Ka-CHING!”
Seriously though… aren’t all “sensitve” components already limited to domestic manufacture by DOD-certified companies?
They want DOD certification of everything that goes onto a circuit board – even the “commodity” chips??
Don’t you Americans have any home-grown counterfeiters?
Don’t you Americans have any home-grown counterfeiters?
Yes, but shoddy workmanship is different than anti-American sabotage…[grin]