Cybersecurity breakthrough: New cipher system protects computers against spy programs
Baku, August 4, AZERTAC
A team of researchers from around the world has made significant progress in the field of computer security by creating an innovative and highly effective cipher for cache randomization, according to the SciTechDaily.
The innovative cipher, designed by Assistant Professor Rei Ueno from the Research Institute of Electrical Communication at Tohoku University, addresses the threat of cache side-channel attacks, offering enhanced security and exceptional performance,
Modern computer systems are under serious threat from cache side-channel attacks, which can covertly gather sensitive data such as secret keys and passwords from unaware targets. Addressing these attacks is particularly difficult because they take advantage of flaws in the current working mechanisms of computers, making the creation of effective countermeasures extremely challenging.
Cache randomization has emerged as a promising countermeasure; however, identifying a secure and effective mathematical function for this purpose has been a lingering challenge.
To overcome this, Ueno and his colleagues created SCARF. SCARF is based on a comprehensive mathematical formulation and modeling of cache side-channel attacks, offering robust security. Moreover, SCARF exhibits remarkable performance, completing the randomization process with only half the latency of existing cryptographic techniques. The cipher’s practicality and performance were thoroughly validated through rigorous hardware evaluations and system-level simulations.
