FPGA / SoC Security: Arms Race in the Cloud
Steven McNeil · 2020
Technology and cost are motivating more and more developers to put more and more of their "secret sauce" in programmable logic. This is great for the consumer as it opens the market to the smaller players. However, it also opens the market for IP theft; after all, why spend years making something yourself if you can just pilfer it and re-brand it as your own. A sad statement for sure but it is the reality of the world we live in. Worsening the situation is the fact that FPGA's and SoC's are starting to become the anchor for the security of larger systems. This now brings in another set of bad guys; ones that are tech savvy and armed with lab equipment. They are not looking for your IP but are looking to break into the system your IP is protecting. The number of adversaries is growing just as fast as the markets for the devices themselves and is quickly becoming an arms race.