Error Detection in Smartcards

Abstract:
A smartcard is a System-on-Chip that has to fulfil high security as well as low cost and low power requirements. It has to resist attacks that try to gain secret information from the system. Steadily increasing attack capabilities require new protection schemes for next generation smartcard controllers. Error detection methods are a very promising way of significantly enhancing security with respect to fault attacks, an attack method that is becoming more and more popular and sophisticated. The smartcard's requirements are however very challenging to error detection: it has to be extremely reliable at very low cost and power overhead. Current highly secure smartcards contain a mixture of sensors to detect the source of an attack and error detection mechanisms to enhance the security level against local fault induction. With the need for continuous security improvements, smartcards could be the driver for new very efficient error detection schemes in the future.