Development of a Novel, Nano-Hardware Lock and Associated Software Anti-Tamper Techniques for Secure Memory and Memory Eraser Applications

The NESL concept uses three techniques to form a protective shield around modern computer systems. The first layer is a novel method for generating and locking cryptographic keys to a unique computer system. The second and third layer leverage this novel key system to protect primary and secondary memory from exploitation through encryption. The secondary memory system is protected with an encrypted file system, and the primary memory is protected with encryption when outside of the CPU. The proposed, novel key locking system, though relatively simple, takes advantage of the complex and disparate natural phenominon. It creates a network of cryptographic key elements that can be used in a similar way as parallel port hardware and software locks (dongles) are used today. By taking advantage of the inherent and diverse properties of commercially available materiels, the proposed test structure, or a variety of sizes and configurations thereof, can be fabricated at a relatively low cost. The proposed kernel page decryption prototype will introduce an innovative technique to maintain a cache-free file access system for sensitive information. Using this solution, sensitive data is no longer vulnerable to volatile memory forensics, it also means greater protection against traditional non-volatile memory forensics.