Guest Editors' Introduction to Special Section on Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded SystemsC. K. Koc and C. PaarIEEE Transactions on Computers, 52(4):401-402, April 2003.AbstractCryptography provides the necessary tools for accomplishing private and authenticated communication, and for performing secure and authenticated transactions over the Internet as well as other open networks. It is highly probable that every single bit of information flowing through our networks will have to be either encrypted, or signed and authenticated in a few years from now. This is not to imagine the world of Big Brother, but rather, carrying over the required, legal and contractual certainty from our paper-based offices to our virtual offices existing in cyberspace. In such an environment, server and client computers as well as handheld, portable, and wireless devices will have to be capable of encrypting or decrypting and signing or verifying messages. That is to say, without exception, all computers and devices must have cryptographic layers implemented, and must be able to access to cryptographic functions. In this context, efficient (in terms of time, area, and power consumption) hardware structures will have to be designed, implemented, and deployed. Furthermore, general-purpose (platform-independent) as well as special-purpose software implementing cryptographic functions on embedded devices are needed. An additional challenge is that these implementations should be done in such a way to resist cryptanalytic attacks launched against them by adversaries having access to primary (communication) and secondary (power, energy, electromagnetic) channels.This special section of IEEE Transactions on Computers arrives at an appropriate time to inform the readers about this growing area of technical challenges and opportunities. |