Researchers have found a critical flaw within microprocessor technology that could allow hackers to extract confidential information from computer users.

Information published in France's Le Monde daily on Saturday said the team of encryption expert Jean-Pierre Seifert found that today's chips are much more inferior than before. The reason lies in the technology of manufacturing them, when firms want microprocessors to process data faster.

Detecting serious security vulnerabilities in ... microchip images 1 Source: xtmedia " Security has been sacrificed in exchange for performance, " Seifert said.

In fact, this is not the first time people have mentioned the risk of hackers breaking into computer chips thanks to a technique called Branch Prediction Analysis (PBA). However, this technique requires them to try a lot of numbers before decoding the encryption key.

However, Seifert's latest research shows that hackers will attack the processor much easier, faster with a special reconnaissance software, monitoring microchips.

Seifert and colleagues explained how they could find the 512-bit code key after only a single attempt inside this unpublished study.

As expected, Mr. Seifert will present his decoding method early next year, in an international seminar on coding.

Trong Cam