By David Talbot, Technology Review
For high-security jobs like protecting military plans or corporate secrets, the last line of defense is to keep cryptographic keys and other crucial data on chips covered by elaborate physical protections, such as layers of wire mesh that will destroy the stored data if disturbed. Even this probably isn’t enough, as it turns out. Researchers in Berlin and California have shown that with costly equipment and determination, it’s possible to mill down the back of the silicon on chips and steal the data with microscopic probes. It’s akin to bank robbers digging up from underground to reach a highly protected vault.
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