Security Threats in Wireless Communication Arising from Malicious Modifications: Wireless Hardware Trojans

Abstract

Due to the design outsourcing and migration of fabrication foundries, and increased reliance on external third-party hardware intellectual property (IP) and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software from various vendors, the Integrated Circuit (IC) design and manufacturing supply chain has experienced increased fragmentation. As a result, the security and assurance of trustworthiness of microelectronics has become an increasing concern over the last 15 years. While the majority of the work in this area initially focused on digital circuits, investigating these concerns in the analog/RF domain has gained momentum in the recent years. This talk focuses on malicious hardware modifications in wireless communication systems. We will visit the background to Wireless Hardware Trojans, its fundamental enablers, and several discovered threat vectors. The convergence of ideas from communication theory, systems, and circuits in the understanding of these threats will be highlighted. Time permitting, real-time detection and mitigation of Wireless Hardware Trojans will be discussed.

Bio

Aria Nosratinia received the degrees of B.S. from Tehran University and M.A.Sc. from University of Windsor, both in electrical engineering, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA, in 1996. After appointments at Princeton and Rice University, he joined the University of Texas at Dallas where he is currently Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professor and Associate Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. His interests are in the broad area of information theory and signal processing, with applications in wireless communication and related areas. He was Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, and IEEE Wireless Communications. He is a fellow of IEEE and was named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thompson Reuters).