Security design considerations of hardware

Abstract

Traditionally, computer hardware have been designed independent of the total system's approach. Central processing units can usually provide protection under software and firmware control, but do not provide for software copy protection and data integrity automatically. Storage devices and peripherals have been built to receive and transmit information without being regarded as a valuable resource. The operation, reliability, and performance of computer systems is usually measured with respect to the hardware device, requiring software to gather and correlate data into meaningful units of measure. This session will discuss the security design and functional specifications of fifth generation computer hardware by concentrating on the relationship between storage devices, processor units, and configuration management issues. The relationship is defined as execution stylometry or a means of fingerprinting software to hardware. In today's business environment, more and more dependencies have been based on the availability of information and the validity of that information. Attempts to satisfy the security needs of business through software have proved unsuccessful and ineffective. The opportunities to specify the building blocks and integration criteria in fifth generation systems provide a mechanism for satisfying these security needs.