Hardware Countermeasures against Power Analysis Attacks: a Survey from Past to Present

Abstract

Modern cryptographic circuits are increasingly demanding security requirements. Since its invention, power analysis attacks are a threat to the security of such circuits. In order to contribute to the design of secure circuits, designers may employ countermeasures in different abstraction levels. This work presents a brief survey of countermeasures to help designers to find good solutions for the design of secure cryptographic systems. A summary is highlighted to compare the pros and cons of the approaches to help designers choose a better solution, or even provide subsidies so that new solutions can be proposed.