Computer programs ultimately are executed by physical hardware- and the correct behavior of this hardware is essential to correct behavior of software. This is especially true for security tools — there are decades of hardware side channel attacks designed to subvert software security systems.In the course of developing Portal Masquerade the secure travel router- we explored a variety of hardware protection techniques for client hardware. At CryptoSeal and now at CloudFlare we’ve developed server-side hardware protection. Unfortunately a lot of documentation tools and support has been lacking in this talk- we show the state of the art in hardware protection, a simple methodology for identifying when hardware protection can be helpful and how to deploy it as well as identify promising directions for future commercial or community work.

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