Premium Content

New Signal Chain Resources from Texas Instruments:

The "Keys" To Securing A System

It's not enough to use firewalls or encrypt a couple of data files. Security is only as good as the weakest link.

Date Posted: August 27, 2009 12:00 AM
Author: William Wong

SECURE SIGHT
A secure boot of a secure operating system is sufficient for some environments. But interaction with users brings the need for identification as well as user-related I/O. Secure displays are one feature that can be found in secure systems for the military (Fig. 5).

Secure aspects of the display system can be implemented in software or hardware. For example, a secure device driver can be set up to only display information from a secure application on the bottom line of the display. Applications that go full screen will not overwrite this secure area. Other tricks include display hardware that would perform this same chore.

The ubiquitous ctrl-alt-delete is a related interface item. In theory, the key combination should only invoke a system application. For Windows, it presented a dialog box that could start the Task Manager among other things. With a secure display, the feedback could be through the secure display area, making it impossible for an application to simulate a response.

microcontrollers
Part Inventory
Go
powered by:
 

 
You must log on before posting a comment.

Are you a new visitor? Register Here
    There are no comments to display. Be the first one!