Security Attacks and Countermeasures for Smart Cards and RFIDS

Smart cards (and increasingly RFIDs) can be considered as small, hardware security modules that are deployed as part of critical system infrastructure. Because of this they are specially designed to resist a wide range of attacks that can be made against them. To appreciate these capabilities an overview will be given of smart card attacks and the countermeasures that are used to resist them. The overview will include timing, SPA, DPA, fault, electromagnetic and some RFID specific attacks.

The talk is an extract from the Masters in Information Security at Royal Holloway University of London.

Dr Mayes has a 1st Class (Hons) Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering and a PhD in Digital Image Processing from the University of Bath. During a long industry career he has worked for Philips, Honeywell Aerospace & Defence, Racal Research, Racal Messenger, Vodafone UK, Vodafone Europe and finally for the Vodafone Group as the Global SIM Manager responsible for SIM (smart card) strategy and harmonisation. Aside from his current research and teaching focus on smart cards, RFIDs and security, he has maintained an active interest in mobile communications, hardware and software development, Intellectual Property and radio relay trials.