Non-invasive Techniques Towards Recovering Highly Secure Unclonable Cryptographic Keys and Detecting Counterfeit Memory Chips

Due to the ubiquitous presence of memory components in all electronic computing systems, memory-based signatures are considered low-cost alternatives to generate unique device identifiers (IDs) and cryptographic keys. On the one hand, this unique device ID can potentially be used to identify major types of device counterfeitings such as remarked, overproduced, and cloned. On the other hand, memory-based cryptographic keys are commercially used in many cryptographic applications such as securing software IP, encrypting key vault, anchoring device root of trust, and device authentication for could services. As memory components generate this signature in runtime rather than storing them in memory, an attacker cannot clone/copy the signature and reuse them in malicious activity. However, to ensure the desired level of security, signatures generated from two different memory chips should be completely random and uncorrelated from each other. Traditionally, memory-based signatures are considered unique and uncorrelated due to the random variation in the manufacturing process. Unfortunately, in previous studies, many deterministic components of the manufacturing process, such as memory architecture, layout, systematic process variation, device package, are ignored. This dissertation shows that these deterministic factors can significantly correlate two memory signatures if those two memory chips share the same manufacturing resources (i.e., manufacturing facility, specification set, design file, etc.). We demonstrate that this signature correlation can be used to detect major counterfeit types in a non-invasive and low-cost manner. Furthermore, we use this signature correlation as side-channel information to attack memory-based cryptographic keys. We validate our contribution by collecting data from several commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) memory chips/modules and considering different usage-case scenarios

Understanding grand and petty corruption: A case study of Slovak health care

INTRODUCTION: As one of the more elusive social phenomena, corruption is notoriously difficult to investigate or measure, due to its clandestine nature. Within this work, corruption is conceptualised and addressed by focusing on sociological elements of cultural pressure, learnt behaviour, historical perspectives, and Central European regional idiosyncrasies of post-communist practices, all impacting on modern corrupt practices. METHODS: This thesis examines the applicability of the ‘grand’ and ‘petty’ corruption distinction to a real-life understanding of corruption by qualitatively analysing the data collected during fieldwork in Slovakia. The main research question addressed reads as follows: To what extent is the theoretical difference between grand and petty corruption reflected in the real-life understanding of corruption in Slovakia’s health care? Interviews and focus groups are analysed in the work using thematic and textual analysis, and utilising the NVivo12 software to identify trends and commonalities in regard to views of the prevalence, mechanisms, and barriers associated with corruption. The empirical part of the work is centred around the interpretivist approach to data analysis, emphasising the relevance and indispensability of the participants’ natural narrative in their real-life understanding of corruption, shaped by experience, rather than theory. RESULTS: The research demonstrates the shortcomings in corruption scholarship so far with regards to classification, measurement, and presentation of data. The existing bias towards economic and financial angles of corruption investigation is mitigated by applying a qualitative research design, focused on language and understanding. The research identified cultural nuances of acceptance of gift-giving, and the prevalence of corruption brokerage in everyday corruption in Slovakia. The roles of trust, fear, communist legacies, and networks in day-to-day corruption instigation, and deterrence in corruption reporting, are presented as instrumental in promoting corrupt practice in the Slovak health care sector. CONCLUSION: The thesis concludes that the labels of grand and petty corruption apply to real-life understanding only marginally and that all theoretical terminology relating to corruption disaggregation should be verified in similar research designs, with emphasis on qualitative data analysis. Such analysis is upheld as able to encompass complexity of corruption understanding, inclusive of regional specificities and circumstances. Specific recommendations on incorporating real-life language and understanding are made regarding policy and legislation changes in Slovakia, as well as transparency of language within healthcare insurance re-drafting, and healthcare professional oversight