Naomi Cooper
Bruce Hart, senior director of cyber analytics at KBR’s defense and intelligence business unit, said it remains important for the Department of Defense to ensure the security of microelectronic devices used for the development of modern aircraft, missiles and other military systems.
In an article KBR published Monday, Hart said microelectronics devices vulnerable to attacks by adversaries could compromise the warfighting abilities of the U.S. military and cause missions to fail.
He added that the ability to detect modifications made on microelectronic designs is key to securing the supply chain and keeping up with both military and commercial requirements.
“It’s not possible for our domestic foundries to keep pace with foundries in Asia that are manufacturing cell phones continually and pushing state-of-the-art building components,” Hart noted.
In connection, a group consisting of multidisciplinary teams at KBR is developing novel approaches to ensuring the trustworthiness and security of small electronic devices used for military purposes.
The trusted microelectronics group partners with experts from the government, academia and private sector to develop methods to detect counterfeit products and advance fabrication and packaging processes for secure devices.
It works under a U.S. Air Force task order to help researchers analyze microelectronics security and provide best practices for verifying and validating digital and analog semiconductor components for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Trusted Electronics Branch.
