14 Jul How to Secure Your Digital Conversion Processes
The analog-to-digital (ADC) conversion process converts continuous analog signals into discrete digital data. It involves sampling the analog signal, quantizing it, and encoding it in binary format.
Analog-to-digital converters are susceptible to power and electromagnetic side-channel attacks that allow hackers to eavesdrop on devices and steal user data. MIT researchers have developed two security methods that efficiently protect ADCs from these attacks.
Implement a Virus Scanning System
When digitizing your business’s records, like, for instance, if you wish to turn vhs to digital, it’s essential to keep security in mind. A virus scanning system will help protect your files and databases from malware, worms and viruses.
Most scanners use a set of patterns to identify viruses, checking the code of suspected programs against the pattern list to make sure the program isn’t a virus. They also check the checksum of a file, which involves adding up the bits in the file to ensure the data hasn’t been altered during transfer.
While this process is effective, it can sometimes produce false positives, which are programs that appear to be infected but aren’t. To combat this, some scanners employ heuristic detection, which is less specific than using virus signatures. Heuristic detection uses a kind of “smell test” for files, checking whether a file appears suspicious or if its structures look hinky in a way that benign files typically don’t.
Some viruses attempt to evade antivirus software by loading themselves underneath the scanner, which gives them access to the interrupt handlers and allows them to manipulate the operating system. This is known as tunneling and can cause serious problems for your system. Fortunately, most anti-virus programs have protections against tunneling viruses that prevent them from taking control of the interrupt handlers.
Aside from the heuristic and pattern-based detection, some scanners will also use signatures to detect previously unknown viruses. This is a more accurate way to spot viruses, but it’s also slower. Signatures require a database of snippets of malware code that match the known patterns of a virus. This means that a virus can escape detection if it changes its code to match the signature, which is why most scanners combine pattern-based and signature-based detection.
To integrate your SAP applications with an external virus scan solution, you need a high-performance integration solution such as the SAP NetWeaver Virus Scan Interface (NW-VSI). The NW-VSI consists of two components: an adapter and a service, both running on AS Java. The adapter connects the ABAP and Java worlds, while the service handles low-level details such as platform dependencies and OS compatibility.
Install a Firewall
Many companies utilize a firewall to filter out unwanted packets of information from external users. This system uses a proxy computer between the user client process and the corporation server to open the packet at the application layer, checking whether it contains any suspicious content. If it does, the server rejects it.
MIT researchers recently discovered that analog-to-digital converters in smart devices can be susceptible to power and electromagnetic side-channel attacks that hackers use to eavesdrop on devices and steal sensitive information, such as passwords. Hackers can measure the electric current drawn by the device’s processor and then use machine learning to reconstruct the data that was being processed.
To prevent these attacks, MIT researchers developed a security strategy that randomizes the ADC’s starting point by using capacitors with different threshold settings that draw different amounts of electric current when switching.
This groundbreaking research highlights the evolving nature of cybersecurity threats in our increasingly connected world. As smart devices become more ubiquitous in our daily lives, from smartphones to smart home systems, the potential vulnerabilities in their hardware components pose significant risks to user privacy and data security.
The discovery that analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) can be exploited through power and electromagnetic side-channel attacks is particularly concerning. ADCs are fundamental components in most electronic devices, responsible for converting continuous physical measurements (like sound or temperature) into digital data that can be processed by computers. The fact that these essential components can inadvertently leak information about the data they’re processing opens up a new avenue for sophisticated cyberattacks.
The method employed by potential hackers is ingenious in its simplicity. By measuring the electric current consumed by a device’s processor, attackers can use advanced machine learning algorithms to reconstruct the data being processed. This could potentially expose sensitive information such as passwords, financial data, or personal communications, even if the data is encrypted at the software level.
What makes this vulnerability particularly challenging is that it exploits a fundamental aspect of how electronic devices function. Traditional software-based security measures, such as encryption and firewalls, are ineffective against these hardware-level attacks. This necessitates a new approach to security that addresses vulnerabilities at the hardware level.
Set Up a Backup System
It’s a good idea to make backups of any important data that you process. This is an inexpensive way to protect your files in case of a disaster or accidental deletion.
Normally, an ADC sets thresholds using capacitors, which draw different amounts of current when they switch. But Ashok and her collaborators developed an ADC that uses randomization to decide when the capacitors switch, which makes it much harder for attackers to correlate power supply waveforms with output data.
This innovative approach to hardware security demonstrates the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between cybersecurity experts and potential attackers. As technology evolves, so do the methods of both attack and defense, requiring constant vigilance and innovation in the cybersecurity field.
In addition to hardware-level protections, organizations must also focus on comprehensive cybersecurity strategies that encompass both hardware and software elements. This multi-layered approach, often referred to as “defense in depth,” involves implementing various security measures to protect against a wide range of potential threats.
One crucial aspect of modern cybersecurity is the concept of Zero Trust Architecture. This security model operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” requiring all users, devices, and network traffic to be authenticated and authorized before gaining access to resources, regardless of their location relative to the network perimeter.
Another emerging trend in cybersecurity is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for threat detection and response. These technologies can analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, identifying patterns and anomalies that might indicate a security breach or attempted attack. AI-powered security systems can often detect and respond to threats faster than human analysts, providing a crucial edge in the fast-paced world of cybersecurity.
As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to expand, securing these interconnected devices becomes increasingly important. Many IoT devices have limited processing power and memory, making traditional security measures challenging to implement. This has led to the development of lightweight encryption algorithms and security protocols specifically designed for IoT environments.
Quantum computing, while still in its early stages, poses both opportunities and challenges for cybersecurity. On one hand, quantum computers could potentially break many of the encryption algorithms currently in use. On the other hand, quantum cryptography offers the promise of virtually unbreakable encryption methods.
As cyber threats continue to evolve, ongoing education and training for IT professionals and end-users alike remain critical. Building a culture of cybersecurity awareness within organizations can significantly reduce the risk of successful attacks, particularly those that rely on social engineering tactics.