DEFCON-16
DEFCON is the world's largest annual hacker conference that takes place on August 8-10 in Las Vegas – according to their website, in 2007 it was attended by over 6,000 people. DEFCON follows another well-known computer security conference,
called
BLACKHAT, that takes place in Las Vegas on August 2-7.
While the main focus of DEFCON has been computer/network security in the past, hardware security is becoming an increasingly important DEFCON topic. The growing use of programmable hardware devices (such as FPGAs) coupled with the increasing push to manufacture most electronic devices overseas means that our hardware is increasingly vulnerable to an attack from potential enemies.
CVORG is a research group located at the University of Delaware’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Newark, Delaware. We specialize in making electronic devices and in software-hardware integration. Hardware security is a "topic of interest" for CVORG and it is the reason we are coming to DEFCON-16. We are involved in three activities at DEFCON-16:
- We are giving a talk, DEMONSTRATION OF HARDWARE TROJANS, in TRACK 2, on Saturday, August 9th, 17:20-17:50. Our talk explores three possible methods that a hardware Trojan can use to exfiltrate (e.g. leak) secret information to the outside world: thermal, optical and radio. You can see the demonstration video that accompanies our talk, if you scroll below.
- We are operating a demonstration booth at the Hardware Hacking Village (HHV) located in Sky Box 209. At our booth we will be showing how to program FPGA devices and demonstrating high-end electronic test equipment including an infrared imager, an RF signal hunter, a mixed-signal oscilloscope and an arbitrary waveform generator (ARB). We will be giving away cool prizes, that include a new TEK oscilloscope, over a dozen FPGA design kits from XILINX and DIGILENT, and Best Buy gift certificates. You can see our HHV booth schedule, if you scroll below.
- We are also filming a documentary film about our DEFCON experience. Our motivation for making this film is to get the word out that tinkering with computers and hardware is fun! We see fewer undergraduate kids interested in computers and hardware (and this problem gets bigger in graduate school). On the other hand, these capabilities are critical for our nation! We believe that a documentary film about a group of undergraduate and graduate students experiencing DEFCON is a good way to promote studying of engineering (especially computers and hardware) to kids.
VIDEOS FROM DEFCON
Click on the links below to view videos that we filmed at DEFCON-16:
Hardware Trojan Demonstration Video
This video is part of our DEFCON-16 presentation DEMONSTRATION OF HARDWARE TROJANS.
Demonstration of Hardware Trojans on Vimeo.
You can download a high-definition version of our video or view an older version here.
DEFCON-16 Presentation Slides
DEFCON-16 Presentation Video
To play a video of our DEFCON presentation click PLAY on the image below.
CVORG Booth at the Hardware Hacking Village (HHV)
We are operating a demonstration booth at the Hardware Hacking Village (HHV) located in Sky Box 209. At our booth we will be showing how to program FPGA devices and demonstrating high-end electronic test equipment including an infrared imager, an RF signal hunter, a mixed-signal oscilloscope and an arbitrary waveform generator (ARBs). We will be giving away cool prizes, that include a new TEK oscilloscope, FPGA design kits from XILINX and DIGILENT, and Best Buy gift certificates. Click on the images below to see our booths' hours of operation and the rules for competing our contests. The CVORG hardware booth is being sponsored by XILINX, TEKTRONIX, FLUKE, DIGILENT, TESTEQUITY and IRVINE SENSORS.
Pick up the entry form for oscilloscope at our booth or download here.
CVORG DEFCON-16 WIKI
You can view our DEFCON-16 WIKI page here. Warning: some contents are private.
CERTAIN DISCLAIMERS
If you want CVORG to design or to reverse-engineer your electronic devices, or you have questions about our research, or you are interested in joining our team, send me an email. I manage this research group and I am responsible for the content of this webpage.
Fouad Kiamilev
Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Delaware