Forwarded From: Nicholas Charles Brawn <ncb05t_private> Smart Card Antihack Hardware System 28-10-1998 21:17 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 1998 OCT 28 (Newsbytes) -- By Craig Menefee, Newsbytes. Schlumberger, the European firm whose Smart Cards & Terminals group is now pivotal in the smart card industry, has announced a hardware-based data shield against unauthorized smart card access or "crack" attempts that use probes, electron beams or ion beams to probe the contents. It sounds like science fiction, but Schlumberger officials say real attempts have been reported that used such tools to plumb cards for their data. Smart card contents can run from credit card numbers to physical access authorizations and can be valuable to thieves who manage to snoop out the data. Schlumberger officials told Newsbytes late Tuesday the firm believes the answer is a physical shield against such "cracking" attempts, which is needed, they said, for the cards to reach their full financial or security potential. Ironically, Schlumberger's anticracking "solution" is to make a smart card's internal chip itself crack to pieces, becoming unreadable, when probed. The actual system is called SiShell, pronounced "seashell." It works by changing the physical layering of components at the chipmaking plant. David Karpenske, Schlumberger's vice president of marketing in the firm's San Jose office, explained to Newsbytes that manufacturers using the system will layer a compound on top of the wafer used for smart card integrated circuits (ICs). The compound shatters, taking the underlying IC with it, if someone attempts to pull out information by using probe needles, e-beams or ion beams. "The approach allows you to discourage physical attacks," said Karpenske. "What happens is that the compound, bonded to the chip, is brittle. That makes the chip itself brittle, in effect. If you try to probe the device, it will fragment to pieces." To make it work, Karpenske said, the manufacturer must restructure the chip. No circuits have to change, but the chip layers are deposited differently, with less depth at the back of the device. As a result, the chip "features" or circuits are layered onto a much thinner wafer. When the compound is added, it brings the whole assembly back up to the original thickness, so nothing else has to change. "What happens is that if you try to probe through the compound, it actually fractures and the silicon device itself breaks into pieces," Karpenske explained. Karpenske says the process mechanisms are already in place at various manufacturers, although he declined to specify which ones. He did say adopting the system is not expensive since it involves no design or form factor changes. He said probe-resistant chips will start sampling in the first quarter of 1999, ramping up to production from there. As for how critical the technology may be to market acceptance of the cards in areas like the US, Karpenske said the answer depends on how important physical security may be. "In any market, whether it's geographic or oriented toward applications, when security is critical you'll find a lot of standards that cover logical security. What this does is provide a layer of physical security. It won't let hackers even make physical attacks to find data pin-outs or the like." Karpenske says there is a market for such chips and vendors in several areas are already looking at the system's ability to add a layer of security, ranging "from financial to pay TV." More information is available on the Internet at http://www.slb.com/smartcards . -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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