Security News > 2022 > January > Silk could tie up all-but-unbreakable encryption, say South Korean boffins

Silk could become a means of authentication and unbreakable encryption, according to South Korean boffins.

Silk can take on this role, as explained in Nature Communications, because security boffins are increasingly interested in "Physical unclonable functions" - physical objects whose properties are impossible to replicate.

As we explained in 2018, the electrical variation present in individual semiconductors has seen them used to generate keys unique to each device, making each chip a PUF. The authors of the Nature paper, from South Korea's Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, think we need more PUFs to help with tasks ranging from better encryption keys to providing unique identifiers for physical objects.

As each piece of silk has its own unique pattern of fibres, the resulting light is also unique.

So much entropy that they reckon it would take 5x1041 years to replicate the unique light signature a swatch of silk possesses.

The authors point out that silk is a renewable resource, but without considering whether it is ethical to add silkworms to the infosec workforce.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/01/28/silken_security/