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Unhackable computer under development with $3.6M DARPA grant

Accepted submission by AnonTechie at 2017-12-21 16:01:15
Security

By turning computer circuits into unsolvable puzzles, a University of Michigan team aims to create an unhackable computer with a new $3.6 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Todd Austin, U-M professor of computer science and engineering, leads the project, called MORPHEUS. Its cybersecurity approach is dramatically different from today's, which relies on software—specifically software patches to vulnerabilities that have already been identified. It's been called the "patch and pray" model, and it's not ideal.

MORPHEUS outlines a new way to design hardware so that information is rapidly and randomly moved and destroyed. The technology works to elude attackers from the critical information they need to construct a successful attack. It could protect both hardware and software.

In this way, MORPHEUS could protect against future threats that have yet to be identified, a dreaded vulnerability that the security industry called a "zero day exploit." Under MORPHEUS, the location of the bug would constantly change and the location of the passwords would change, he said. And even if an attacker were quick enough to locate the data, secondary defenses in the form of encryption and domain enforcement would throw up additional roadblocks. The bug would still be there, but it wouldn't matter. The attacker won't have the time or the resources to exploit it.

DARPA is aiming to render these attacks impossible within five years. If developed, MORPHEUS could do it now, Austin said.

Unhackable computer under development [umich.edu]

[Also Covered By]: Phys.org [phys.org]

So many, so called, unhackable devices were hacked, sometimes within hours of release. How long do you think this would remain unhackable ? Is it even possible to make an unhackable computer ?


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