Ensuring data integrity via ICmetrics based security infrastructure

Society has grown to trust and depend on electronic systems. However, rising complexity, reduced time to market and increased commercial pressure contribute to eroding dependability. At the same time the value of data and high social dependence on the now ubiquitous embedded systems that underlie most products and equipment attract malicious exploits. Tampering of electronic systems to compromise their integrity and the security of their stored and transmitted data is a growing problem in today´s connected devices. This manuscript describes research relating to a new concept called ICmetrics capable of improving the security of system-on- chip (SoC) based devices and their data by providing a reliable means of identifying each device and verifying the absence of tampering using each device´s unique features and properties. Specifically, this manuscript outlines a methodology to extract low level feature values from a SoC via reconfiguration of its existing debug support circuits that were originally intended to aid system-level development and monitoring. This novel approach to feature extraction yields an area saving of over 30% percent compared with dedicated circuits.