Research Projects & Partners

The IMPA Lab is involved in several national and international research projects to advance and push developments in the field of implementation attacks and countermeasures.

Current Research Projects

Investigation of Implementation Attacks (IIA) is a basic research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (contract number P22241-N23). The primary goals of IIA are the analysis of existing cryptographic devices in terms of their susceptibility to implementation attacks as well as the development of new countermeasures against these attacks. A special focus of the research is on the combination of different attack methods, so-called combined implementation attacks.

ECRYPT II This EU-funded Network of Excellence (NoE) started in August 2008 and is the successor of ECRYPT. Its objective is to continue intensifying the collaboration of European researchers in information security. IAIK is co-leader in the "Virtual Applications and Implementations Research Lab" ("VAMPIRE Lab") working group 2 (physical security) and coordinator of the "Symmetric Techniques Virtual Lab" ("SymLab") working group 1 (hash functions).

Recently Finished Research Projects

	A microcontroller prototype with countermeasures against side-channel analysis (SCA) and differential fault analysis (DFA) will be the final result of POWER TRUST. This is a FIT-IT sponsored research project.
	In ARTEUS we investigate fault analysis (FA) attacks and the design of circuits with FA-countermeasures. It is sponsored by FIT-IT.
	DFA This project investigates all aspects of fault attacks - practical fault injection methods, theoretical fault attacks, as well as development of countermeasures. The project started in March 2007. It is conducted together with the project partners Secure Business Austria (SBA) and A-SIT.
	GRANDESCA This project deals with the investigation of open issues of power analysis resistant logic styles and new concepts for a robust, efficient, and secure generation of random numbers. The project started in February 2007 and is sponsored by the Austrian research programme FIT-IT.
	ISCA This project is concerned with basic research on side-channel attacks. It is the successor project of ISDPA and is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
	SNAP Within this project, we investigate how passively powered NFC tags can be implemented in a DPA-resistance manner. This project started in February 2006 and is sponsored by the Austrian research programme FIT-IT.
	ECRYPT This EU-funded Network of Excellence (NoE) started in February 2004. We are working-group leaders within the "Virtual Applications and Implementations Research Lab", the "VAMPIRE Lab".
	SCARD This EU-funded project started in January 2004. The goal of this project is to develop a semi-custom design flow for devices that need to be secure against side-channel attacks. IAIK is the initiator and scientific leader of this project.

For older research projects take a look at the research archive.

Research Partners

A selection of our research partners in the area of implementation attacks:

• Industry Partners
  • Infineon Technologies Austria AG (IFAT), Graz, Austria
  • Infineon Technologies AG (IFX), Munich, Germany
  • Cryptovision, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
  • TUBITAK, Turkey
  • Siemens Corporate Technology, Munich, Germany

• University Partners
  • Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Bochum, Germany: Embedded Security (EMSEC) Group
  • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULRD), Leuven, Belgium: Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography (COSIC) Group
  • Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: UCL Crypto Group
  • University of Bristol, Bristol, UK: Cryptography and Information Security Group
  • University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy: Department of Electrical Engineering
  • ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland: Integrated Systems Laboratory