[Xilinx] Security by Design Security throughout the product lifecycle

“Security is a complex subject, covering multiple technical disciplines and focus areas based on the threats customers are trying to prevent, the sophistication of adversaries they care about, and the environment in which the final product is deployed. The Venn diagram below shows the different disciplines surrounding the term “platform security” and areas where Xilinx has invested heavily.

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Security is a complex subject, covering multiple technical disciplines and focus areas based on the threats customers are trying to prevent, the sophistication of adversaries they care about, and the environment in which the final product is deployed. The Venn diagram below shows the different disciplines surrounding the term “platform security” and areas where Xilinx has invested heavily.

Trust: Highlights the known lineage and heritage of Xilinx system solutions. Chips, software, firmware and soft IP must be “Trojan-free”. Supply chain security and risk management are key focus areas.

Information Assurance (IA): Information Assurance focuses on protecting the information or data being processed by the device. This is primarily accomplished through standard cryptographic techniques (such as authentication and encryption) and fault-tolerant design methods. A fault-tolerant design approach ensures that security is not compromised in the event of an error.

Cybersecurity: While information security secures all information in all forms of media, cybersecurity focuses on protecting information in the cyber domain. This effectively makes cybersecurity a subset of information assurance for most applications.

Tamper Resistant (AT): The focus is on protecting customer intellectual property (IP) deployed in customer products and contained in devices (whether as hardware or software). Our customers invest significant amounts of money in their products, and Xilinx devices must protect those investments from cloning, reverse engineering, or other attacks that can extract IP-resident information in Xilinx devices.

As the Venn diagram accurately reflects, there are some unique areas and important areas of overlap between these disciplines. Understanding all disciplines holistically yields the best defense-in-depth approach.

Security must be considered throughout the product life cycle to maximize system protection. For example, developing a fault-tolerant application-level security solution deployed on a device that is unsafe to boot is like building a building on a sand foundation. As can be seen from the pyramid, Xilinx and Xilinx customers have a shared responsibility to ensure the security of the system. In addition, it is important to recognize that no system is completely immune to attack — any system can be compromised given enough time, effort, resources, and funding. The key to safety is managing risk, and how much investment customers want to invest in managing that risk.

Xilinx uses world-class best practices to build trust in silicon, software and development tools. Integrating a range of countermeasures into the chip helps protect against a wide range of attack vectors. Secure boot or configuration of Xilinx products provides authenticity, confidentiality and integrity using a hardware root of trust.

After the device has been safely booted, the established security must be maintained. Runtime protection is a shared responsibility between Xilinx, customers, and Xilinx’s rich ecosystem.

The foundation of the pyramid is built to ultimately protect the customer’s end application.