A Survey of Techniques for Improving Security of GPUs

Graphics processing unit (GPU), although a powerful performance-booster, also has many security vulnerabilities. Due to these, the GPU can act as a safe-haven for stealthy malware and the weakest `link' in the security `chain'. In this paper, we present a survey of techniques for analyzing and improving GPU security. We classify the works on key attributes to highlight their similarities and differences. More than informing users and researchers about GPU security techniques, this survey aims to increase their awareness about GPU security vulnerabilities and potential countermeasures

Agri-Food Traceability Management using a RFID System with Privacy Protection

In this paper an agri-food traceability system based on public key cryptography and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is proposed. In order to guarantee safety in food, an efficient tracking and tracing system is required. RFID devices allow recording all useful information for traceability directly on the commodity. The security issues are discussed and two different methods based on public cryptography are proposed and evaluated. The first algorithm uses a nested RSA based structure to improve security, while the second also provides authenticity of data. An experimental analysis demonstrated that the proposed system is well suitable on PDAs to

State of Alaska Election Security Project Phase 2 Report

A laska’s election system is among the most secure in the country, and it has a number of safeguards other states are now adopting. But the technology Alaska uses to record and count votes could be improved— and the state’s huge size, limited road system, and scattered communities also create special challenges for insuring the integrity of the vote. In this second phase of an ongoing study of Alaska’s election security, we recommend ways of strengthening the system—not only the technology but also the election procedures. The lieutenant governor and the Division of Elections asked the University of Alaska Anchorage to do this evaluation, which began in September 2007.Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell. State of Alaska Division of Elections.List of Appendices / Glossary / Study Team / Acknowledgments / Introduction / Summary of Recommendations / Part 1 Defense in Depth / Part 2 Fortification of Systems / Part 3 Confidence in Outcomes / Conclusions / Proposed Statement of Work for Phase 3: Implementation / Reference

Over-the-air software updates in the internet of things : an overview of key principles

Due to the fast pace at which IoT is evolving, there is an increasing need to support over-theair software updates for security updates, bug fixes, and software extensions. To this end, multiple over-the-air techniques have been proposed, each covering a specific aspect of the update process, such as (partial) code updates, data dissemination, and security. However, each technique introduces overhead, especially in terms of energy consumption, thereby impacting the operational lifetime of the battery constrained devices. Until now, a comprehensive overview describing the different update steps and quantifying the impact of each step is missing in the scientific literature, making it hard to assess the overall feasibility of an over-the-air update. To remedy this, our article analyzes which parts of an IoT operating system are most updated after device deployment, proposes a step-by-step approach to integrate software updates in IoT solutions, and quantifies the energy cost of each of the involved steps. The results show that besides the obvious dissemination cost, other phases such as security also introduce a significant overhead. For instance, a typical firmware update requires 135.026 mJ, of which the main portions are data dissemination (63.11 percent) and encryption (5.29 percent). However, when modular updates are used instead, the energy cost (e.g., for a MAC update) is reduced to 26.743 mJ (48.69 percent for data dissemination and 26.47 percent for encryption)