Mechanism Design for Improving Hardware Security Workshop Report

On August 24-25, 2022, the CCC held a visioning workshop on Mechanism Design for Improving Hardware Security in Washington, D.C. The workshop brought together experts in hardware and software security, economics, and government policy to investigate ways to improve the design and uptake of hardware security mechanisms. With the increasing pervasiveness of hardware in society, comes a parallel increase in hardware security concerns. Recent hardware attacks such as Spectre and Meltdown demonstrate just how devastating and dangerous these attacks can be. With the availability of free hardware designs and tools, the prevalence and discovery of these types of design/security problems are likely to accelerate. While these problems are well known in society, very little is being done to prevent these types of catastrophes. This report emphasizes how important hardware security is and outlines key recommendations and findings from the participant discussions at the workshop.