Detecting cyber-attacks
ULTRASOC AND AGILE ANALOG WORK TO DETECT PHYSICAL
CYBER-ATTACKS. NEIL TYLER REPORTS
NEWS CYBERSECURITY
Commercially available
5G devices surge
The Global mobile Suppliers Association
(GSA) has reported that the number of
commercially available 5G devices had
increased by 41% in April, with 95 different
5G devices now commercially available out of
over 280 announced devices.
According to the GSA, these figures
demonstrate continued and significant growth
since its last report in March, which recorded
253 announced devices, of which at least 67
were commercially available at that time.
‘‘In what is clearly a very challenging
time globally with social distancing and
fundamental changes to the way we work
and live, connectivity has never been more
critical,” commented Joe Barrett, President of
GSA. “Around the world we are seeing mobile
operators take unprecedented steps to
support their subscribers and boost capacity,
with 5G a vital part of their immediate and
future strategies. As this data shows, we’re
also seeing the vendor community working
hard to bring devices to market even quicker
to support the rollout and expansion of new
5G services, with smartphones accounting for
over 85% of the new commercially available
devices recorded this month.”
By mid-April 2020, GSA had identified:
16 announced form factors; 81 vendors that
had announced available or forthcoming
5G devices and a total of 283 announced
devices.
GSA also tracks spectrum band support
of 5G devices and has identified spectrum
support information for just over threequarters
of all announced devices.
It found that 70% of all announced 5G
devices are identified as supporting sub-6
GHz spectrum bands while 29.3% are
understood to support mmWave spectrum.
Just 22.6% of all announced devices are
known to support both mmWave and sub-6
GHz spectrum bands. The bands known to be
most supported by all announced 5G devices
are n78, n41, n79 and n77.
UltraSoC and Agile Analog are collaborating on a comprehensive hardware-based cybersecurity
infrastructure that will see UltraSoC’s embedded on-chip analytics combined with Agile Analog’s
advanced on-chip analogue monitoring IP.
The combination will enable the detection and prevention of ‘analogue interference’ cyberattacks
that circumvent traditional security measures by tampering with underlying systems
such as power supply levels or clock signals.
UltraSoC’s cybersecurity products will be able to monitor the functional behaviour of digital
circuitry, adding an extra layer of defence-in-depth to the security landscape, and detecting and
mitigating cyber threats at hardware speed.
Agile Analog offers a parallel range of “smart” monitors in the analogue domain, such as
voltage, temperature and timing sensors to detect side-channel attacks or anomalous behaviour
that could indicate a cyber-attack.
The combination of system-level digital monitoring and analogue capabilities will, according to
the companies, enable a holistic approach to hardware-based cybersecurity.
Side-channel attacks are used to gain access to a chip’s internal circuitry, which makes
UltraSoC’s hardware based security a critical component in monitoring and defending against
these attacks, where hackers may exploit side-channel vulnerabilities to launch a brute force
attack.
Commenting Gajinder Panesar, CTO at UltraSoC, said “Agile Analog has some truly unique
technology that’s invaluable in monitoring the underlying analogue behaviour of an SoC for
potential signs of suspicious or unexpected activity. We believe that partnerships like this are
key to enabling a holistic secure embedded cybersecurity architecture with monitoring capable of
delivering from fab to field.”
UltraSoC embeds transaction-aware hardware monitors into the digital infrastructure of an
SoC. These are interconnected via a message-based architecture, allowing the implementation
of sophisticated system-wide anomaly detection and mitigation measures.
The company’s Bus Sentinel and CAN Sentinel hardware modules, for example, can identify
and instantaneously block suspicious communications within the chip.
The partnership with Agile Analog will integrate data from analogue monitors into the
UltraSoC cybersecurity infrastructure, enabling even more sophisticated anomaly detection
schemes.
MEMS microphone design centre
AAC Technologies is to open a MEMS
microphone centre in Edinburgh, that expands
its global footprint and reinforces its market
position in the design of next generation
microphone system-level solutions.
“AAC is committed to developing systemlevel
solutions across the world, wherever
talent and expertise can be leveraged,”
said David Plekenpol, AAC Chief Strategy
Officer and Chairman of the American &
European Region. “The opening of Edinburgh
strengthens our ability to continue developing
innovative MEMS microphone solutions in an
evolving mobile marketplace.”
With the opening of the Edinburgh
office, AAC is expanding its MEMS research
and development capabilities, pursuing
microphones with smaller physical sizes,
better signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), lower power
draw, and improved ruggedness and reliability.
When combined with advanced
programming, MEMS microphones can be
used in a range of devices that offer improved
keyword detection, user recognition, multilanguage
recognition and custom wake-up
words. Optimising the signal pathway and
processing is another key goal, which can
result in dramatic power savings by limiting the
need for a power-hungry DSP to process audio
signals.
The centre is intended to position AAC to
address the wave of voice-controlled artificial
intelligence applications that are becoming
central to the smartphone user experience.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 28 April 2020 7
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