Talk Title: Exploring practical issues relating to the determination of device identity based on their physical and operating characteristics
Bio: Prof. Gareth Howells is a Professor of Secure Electronic Systems at the University of Kent, UK and Founder and Director of Metrarc Ltd, a joint spin-out company of the Universities of Kent and Essex. He has been involved in research relating to security, biometrics and pattern classification techniques for over thirty years and has been instrumental in the development of novel security technology for deriving encryption keys from the operating characteristics of digital systems. He has been awarded, either individually or jointly, research funding totalling over £10m relating to the pattern classification and security fields, publishing over 190 papers in the technical literature. Recent work has been directed towards the development of practical secure device authentication systems which are currently in the process of being commercially exploited.
Talk abstract: The digital revolution has transformed the way we create, destroy, share, process and manage information. However, such technology has also increased the opportunities for fraud and other related crimes to be committed. Therefore, as the adoption of such technologies expands, it becomes vital to ensure the integrity and authenticity of electronic digital systems and to manage, control access to and verify their identity. This talk will investigate practical issues related to the determination of device identity based on their physical and operating characteristics. Such a technology presents significant challenges in generating a robust and flexible system with sufficient entropy to operate in a practical environment. The talk will explore the technical challenges associated with the technology and examines some of the considerations associated with its successful commercial exploitation