Communications of the ACM
Guarding Against the Possible Spectre in Every Machine
Indiana University professor Scott Shackelford describes the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities as symptomatic of most technology firms following poor supply-chain precautions.
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The recent disclosure of the widespread high-profile Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities in electronic devices is symptomatic of most technology firms following poor supply-chain precautions, writes Indiana University professor Scott Shackelford.
"As more and more devices...get connected to the Internet, the growing scale of the threat from hackers can easily get lost in the excitement," he warns.
Shackelford cites the U.S. Department of Defense's 2009 procurement of several thousand commercially available gaming consoles for use in a military supercomputer as an error in judgment, because their unvetted overseas manufacture made tampering harder to verify.
He suggests blockchain technology, with its security, transparency, and automation, could be a viable option for improving supply-chain protection.
"Adding value to blockchain systems is the fact that they are digital records, so they can contain software code set to perform specific functions when certain data is stored in the system," Shackelford notes.
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