UltraSoC combines analytics with Agile Analog’s monitoring IP
To detect physical cyber attacks, Agile Analog and UltraSoC have collaborated to create a hardware-based cybersecurity infrastructure. Agile Analog’s sensors complement UltraSoC hardware-based cybersecurity ecosystem, by combining UltraSoC’s embedded on-chip analytics with Agile Analog’s on-chip analogue monitoring IP. The combination will detect and prevent analogue interference-style cyber attacks that circumvent traditional security measures by tampering with underlying systems such as power supply levels or clock signals.
UltraSoC’s cybersecurity products monitor the functional behaviour of digital circuitry, adding an extra layer of defence-in-depth and detecting and mitigating cyber threats at hardware speed. Agile Analog offers a parallel range of smart monitors in the analogue domain, such as voltage, temperature and timing sensors, to detect side-channel attacks or anomalous behaviour that could indicate a cyber attack. The combination of system-level digital monitoring and analogue capabilities will enable a holistic approach to hardware-based cybersecurity.
These types of side-channel attacks, such as voltage and clock glitching, brown-outs and temperature variations, can be used to gain access to a chip’s internal circuitry, which necessitates the hardware based security in monitoring and defending against these attacks.
Gajinder Panesar, CTO at UltraSoC, commented: “Agile Analog has some truly unique technology that’s invaluable in monitoring the underlying analogue behaviour of an SoC for potential signs of suspicious or unexpected activity. We believe that partnerships like this are key to enabling a holistic secure embedded cybersecurity architecture with monitoring capable of delivering from fab to field.”
UltraSoC embeds transaction-aware hardware monitors into the digital infrastructure of an SoC. These are interconnected via a message-based architecture, allowing the implementation of sophisticated system-wide anomaly detection and mitigation measures. The company’s Bus Sentinel and CAN Sentinel hardware modules, for example, can identify and instantaneously block suspicious communications within the chip.
The partnership with Agile Analog will integrate data from analogue monitors (such as clock, voltage and temperature monitors) into the UltraSoC cybersecurity infrastructure, enabling even more sophisticated anomaly detection schemes.
