HARDWARE SECURITY RESEARCH LABS ANNOUNCED BY ABU DHABI’S TII

The Technology Innovation Institute (TII) introduced it’s new hardware security research laboratories in Abu Dhabi first of their kind in the Middle East and North Africa area. These labs will offer advanced capabilities for testing hardware cryptographic implementations and analyzing the security of embedded systems. The laboratories specialize in various advanced techniques such as sidechannel analysis, fault-injection-based attacks, hardware penetration testing, and fuzzing. They possess reverse engineering capabilities and utilize machine learning algorithms to detect sophisticated malware and ransomware.

As a division of TII’s Cryptography Research Centre (CRC), the hardware laboratories aim to provide comprehensive solutions for design security verification and evaluation across multiple applications. These applications range from national safety and automotive to lightweight IoTbased implementations like smart homes and smart meters. The labs also focus on testing and fortifying industrial applications such as smart grids, healthcare devices security, as well as devices and implementations resistant to post-quantum cryptography. Several key projects that can benefit from the labs’ verification services include specialized embedded systems, smartcards, PCBs, ASIC chips, FPGA boards, COTS microcontrollers, and other similar devices.

A primary objective of these labs is to enhance the United Arab Emirates’ technological sovereignty in the field of embedded cryptography. They support the entire end-to-end lifecycle of cryptographic systems, including design, implementation, verification, and security evaluation. The labs also offer documentation and training support to further empower their clients. n