Hardware security experts come together in London at the inaugural RISE Annual Conference
Hardware security experts come together in London at the inaugural Research Institute for Secure Hardware and Embedded Systems (RISE) Annual Conference, organised by CSIT, Queen’s University Belfast, who are core partners in RISE with the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham and Bristol.
RISE, which was launched in November 2017, is one of four cyber security institutes in the UK and is a global hub for research and innovation in hardware security. The institute is hosted by Queen’s and is jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
The Internet of Things has led to increased demand for hardware security research and innovation with growing security needs in embedded and networking devices, as well as in cloud services. An increase in the use of smart devices means that there are now many new attack methods and surfaces for criminals and hackers to exploit.
In light of recently publicised hardware attacks such as the Spectre, Meltdown and Foreshadow, and the alleged Chinese hardware hacking of Amazon and Apple servers, this conference brings together leading hardware security experts from academia and industry to discuss the current challenges in the area and the projects they are working on to address these challenges.
Jo Van Bulck from KU Leuven (co-author of the Foreshadow attack, which found vulnerabilities in Intel processors) delivered the first key note speech of the day discussing ‘Leaky processors and the RISE of hardware-based trusted computing’, and introduced their recent work on several new transient execution attacks that target Intel, ARM and AMD processors. Patrick Koeberl from Intel Labs was the second key note addressing the topic of ‘Vehicle to Cloud: Security Research Challenges for Intelligent Vehicles.’
Prof Máire O’Neill, Director of RISE commented: “RISE is in an excellent position to become the go-to place for high quality hardware security research. A key aim is to bring together the hardware security community in the UK and build a strong network of national and international research partnerships.
We work closely with leading UK-based industry partners and stakeholders, transforming research findings into products, services and business opportunities, which will benefit the UK economy.
This conference presents an opportunity to reflect on the highlights of RISE to date and strengthen our future plans to tackle the global problem of cyber threats.”
Media
Media enquiries to Helen McCrory: H.McCrory@qub.ac.uk