The WSU researchers: Modern Electronics Could Be At Risk By Vulnerabilities On Computer Chips

The researchers from the US’s Washington State University have detected vulnerabilities which can put high-performance chips on computers at risk; as a result, modern electronics operate improperly.

According to the researchers (including one Indian scientist), these vulnerabilities can bring malicious attacks to computers to damage the communication architectures of the on-chip systems and reduce the chip’s lifespan.

They have kept researching how the vulnerabilities operate on computer chips, as well as how to prevent them from attacking the electronics.

Some vendors, including Samsung and Apple, who supply electronic devices to consumers, have allegedly made use of such kinds of vulnerabilities existing in their devices and provided the new updates for software to decelerate smartphone models. This is explained as a strategy by vendors to sell more new handsets.

This is not the first time researchers have conducted studies concerning chip components on computers, including memory, processors, and circuits to look for and handle security vulnerabilities. However, the vulnerabilities found by the WSU scientists have gained much attention due to its bad influence on the communications systems on modern chips.

One of these researchers, Pande, said to reporters that the communications systems worked as a glue to connect everything with each other. When it fails to work properly, the entire system would face issues.

Each high-performance computer sports a lot of processors which support to process cloud computing and big data applications while the communications system handles the memory and processors.

Researchers have now had a plan to increase the number of processors and bring advanced capabilities to modern smartphones.

Aiming to check the security of the communications system, they created three attacks which are described as “craftily constructed deleterious”. As a result, some vertical links in the communications system connecting processors and enabling them to communicate with each other became victims of these attacks.

The WSU scientists are now researching and developing the solutions to control the issue. It may be algorithms or automated techniques that can prevent malicious attacks.