Is More Hardware Malware Protection on the Way?

Is More Hardware Malware Protection on the Way?

Recently, Intel caused something of a stir in the Internet security community when it suggested that a forthcoming processor might squish malware, even foiling yet-to-be conceived assaults.

“I think we have some real breakthrough ideas about changing the game in terms of malware,” Intel's Chief Technology Officer, Justin Rattner, told Computerworld magazine. “We're going to see a quantum jump in the ability of future devices, be them PCs or phones or tablets or smart TVs, to defend themselves against attacks.”

Criminal malware is almost an epidemic on the web, so Intel's suggestion of a hardware solution is important. But it may not be the only hardware solution around.

A search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark database uncovered at least the possibility that other semiconductor companies are also working on developing hardware solutions to malware troubles.

For example, Micron Technology is the assignee of patent application number 20100332809, “Methods and Devices for Saving and/or Restoring a State of a Pattern-Recognition Processor.”

The patent description says that “depending on the type of data in the data stream, different types of search criteria may be chosen by a designer. For instance, the search criteria may be a virus definition file. Viruses or other malware may be characterized, and aspects of the malware may be used to form search criteria that indicate whether the data stream is likely delivering malware. The resulting search criteria may be stored on a server, and an operator of a client system may subscribe to a service that downloads the search criteria to the system. The search criteria may be periodically updated from the server as different types of malware emerge. The search criteria may also be used to specify undesirable content that might be received over a network, for instance unwanted emails (commonly known as spam) or other content that a user finds objectionable.”

While this is far from conclusive, it does seem that at least someone at Micron is thinking about using semiconductor-driven malware solutions. Separately, Micron has other patent applications, some dating back several years, that also mentioned malware and viruses in the context of pattern recognition.

For EEs developing new consumer products, hardware-based malware protection may perform better than current solutions and could represent a competitive advantage. Until an announcement is made, we'll just have to stay on the lookout.

Armando Roggio