USING UNPREDICTABLE INFORMATION TO MINIMIZE LEAKAGE FROM SMARTCARDS AND OTHER CRYPTOSYSTEMS

摘要

Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for securing cryptosystems against external monitoring attacks by reducing the amount (and signal to noise ratio) of useful information leaked during processing. This is generally accomplished by incorporating unpredictable information (101) into the cryptographic processing. Various embodiments of the invention use techniques such as reduction of signal to noise ratios, random noise generation (101, 105), clock skipping (240), and introducing entropy into the order of processing operations or the execution path. The techniques may be implemented in hardware or software, may use a combination of digital and analog techniques, and may be deployed in a variety of cryptographic devices.