News Article
Secure as chips
Cryptography Research and Infineon Technologies sign license agreement for differential power analysis countermeasures. Joint news release of Infineon Technologies and CRI Technology Media.
Cryptography Research (CRI) and Infineon Technologies announced they have signed a license agreement on a security technology for tamper resistant semiconductors. Under the agreement, Infineon will license CRI’s patents for countermeasures to differential power analysis (DPA) and technology and patents related to CRI’s CryptoFirewall to help further expand its own expertise and portfolio.
With the agreement, Infineon gains the right to use CRI's patents and use CRI’s complete portfolio of patents concerning countermeasures to DPA and related attacks worldwide. “Infineon is recognised internationally for their leadership position in developing security chips for the smart card industry,” said Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist at CRI. “We are pleased that Infineon has licensed our patents covering DPA countermeasures.”
“Confidential data stored inside security controllers and smart cards are protected against a multitude of attack scenarios. Our strategy for integrating protective mechanisms that represent the most advanced technological developments is a main success factor. The license to CRI’s patents enables Infineon to provide all solutions of Infineon’s side channel countermeasure portfolio,” said Dr. Helmut Gassel, Vice President and General Manager of the Chip Card and Security ICs Business Unit at Infineon Technologies AG. “Along with energy efficiency and communication, security is one of the three focus areas of Infineon.”
DPA is a type of “side channel” attack that involves monitoring variations in a device’s electrical power consumption. It then uses statistical methods to extract secret cryptographic keys. Many security applications and leading certification standards such as Common Criteria require side channel attack countermeasures. Security certified products are used in banking, conditional access, mass transit, identification, telecommunications and other applications. In combination, hardware and software countermeasures form an ideal synergy against side channel attacks.
CRI and Infineon have also agreed to integrate CRI’s patented CryptoFirewall into select products of one of Infineon’s secure microcontroller platforms. The CryptoFirewall provides an extension to reinforce conventional conditional access systems and hardware based authentication solutions.
With the agreement, Infineon gains the right to use CRI's patents and use CRI’s complete portfolio of patents concerning countermeasures to DPA and related attacks worldwide. “Infineon is recognised internationally for their leadership position in developing security chips for the smart card industry,” said Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist at CRI. “We are pleased that Infineon has licensed our patents covering DPA countermeasures.”
“Confidential data stored inside security controllers and smart cards are protected against a multitude of attack scenarios. Our strategy for integrating protective mechanisms that represent the most advanced technological developments is a main success factor. The license to CRI’s patents enables Infineon to provide all solutions of Infineon’s side channel countermeasure portfolio,” said Dr. Helmut Gassel, Vice President and General Manager of the Chip Card and Security ICs Business Unit at Infineon Technologies AG. “Along with energy efficiency and communication, security is one of the three focus areas of Infineon.”
DPA is a type of “side channel” attack that involves monitoring variations in a device’s electrical power consumption. It then uses statistical methods to extract secret cryptographic keys. Many security applications and leading certification standards such as Common Criteria require side channel attack countermeasures. Security certified products are used in banking, conditional access, mass transit, identification, telecommunications and other applications. In combination, hardware and software countermeasures form an ideal synergy against side channel attacks.
CRI and Infineon have also agreed to integrate CRI’s patented CryptoFirewall into select products of one of Infineon’s secure microcontroller platforms. The CryptoFirewall provides an extension to reinforce conventional conditional access systems and hardware based authentication solutions.
