The hunt for the kill switch

Any manipulation of the chip's software or hardware that would cause the chip to die outright is called a kill switch. Another form of manipulation is called the backdoor, which allows outsiders gain access to the system through code or hardware to disable or enable a specific function. Since such a method works without shutting down the whole chip, users remain unaware of the intrusion. The US military has been for some time relying on chips manufactured outside the US. For instance, many defense contractors rely heavily on field-programmable gate arrays, which is a kind of generic chip that can be customized through software. They cost less than customized and application specific IC. Since it can be reprogrammed, the military faces a new kind of threat from outsiders. As such, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced details of a three-year initiative, known as the Trust in Integrated Circuits program that aims to give the military and defense contractors a guaranteed method of determining whether their chips have been compromised.