New microchip tech protects vehicles from laser attacks

Researchers are proposing that microchip manufacturers adopt a new multi-layered, insulating design to protect them against cyber-physical attacks, primarily from lasers.

On Monday, members of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Soitec, a semiconductor manufacturing company, released a report advocating for a new kind of microchip technology designed to strengthen automotive cybersecurity. It’s called “Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator” (FD-SOI), and it obstructs cyber-physical attacks against chips, making already elaborate and costly attack scenarios even more unrealistic than they might already seem.

“Safety and trust depend on hardware that resists rare but consequential tampering,” says Philippe Flatresse, director of business development at Soitec. Though in the end, FD-SOI may be more likely to spread for being cost-effective and easing compliance with global vehicle security regulations.

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