Traditional Anti-virus software (AVS) is ineffective against modern Malware. Recently, hardware components such as Hardware Performance Counters (HPC) have been used for Malware detection. Hardware as a root of trust is more robust, since modifying the hardware requires physical access. In this talk, we will discuss HPC and other hardware-based primitives for improving Embedded security, in the form of Anti-virus Hardware. Subsequently, we will present various threats as well as defenses against hardware supply chain attacks. Finally, we will discuss security threats pertaining to emerging technologies, like Deep Learning hardware as well as Quantum Computing. We will conclude the talk with future research directions and challenges.
Kanad Basu received his Ph.D. from the department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida. Kanad worked in various semiconductor companies like Intel, IBM and Synopsys. Currently, Kanad is an Assistant Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Texas at Dallas, where he leads the Trustworthy and Intelligent Embedded Systems (TIES) lab. Prior to this, Kanad was an Assistant Research Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of NYU. He has authored 1 book, 2 US patents, 2 book chapters and several peer reviewed journal and conference articles. Several News agencies have covered his research including NBC Austin and CBS Dallas-Fort Worth. Kanad has won several awards, including the NSF CAREER Award (recommended) and the Jonsson School Outstanding Assistant Professor Award from UT Dallas. His research has won several best paper awards as well as included in the IEEE Top Picks in Test and Reliability. He has mentored student teams at UT Dallas that won various international hardware hacking competition, including HACK@DAC and NYU CSAW.