Hardware Devices Security, their Vulnerabilities and Solutions

Similar to software viruses, hardware devices (ICs, PCBs, FPGAs etc) can also be exploited by the introduction of malicious logic into circuits. This job can be done by adding any malicious logic inside the circuit or by changing the logic in such a manner that will remain undetectable during the testing and verification process. Therefore, it is necessary for the device user to ensure that device being used is trustable. Any Hardware device, especially integrated circuits (ICs), was initially believed to be secure as compare to software products. This vulnerability in hardware devices becomes one of the most important research topic in recent times. This paper will present the review of current research about vulnerabilities in hardware devices, insertion of hardware trojans, the detection methods that can help the user to identify the presence of any malicious circuitry and the prevention measures that can be used to avoid hardware attacks.