Power analysis attacks are cryptanalytic attacks that allow the extraction of secret information from cryptographic devices. In contrast to other cryptanalytic attacks, they exploit power consumption characteristics of devices rather than mathematical properties of cryptographic algorithms. Power analysis attacks are non-invasive attacks that can be perfonned with off-the-shelf equipment. Therefore, they pose a serious threat to the secority of cryptographic devices like smart cards.

Smart cards are the most popular kind of cryptographic devices. According to Eurosmart, an international association of smart card companies, the market for smart cards with microprocessors has more than doubled during the last few years. In 2003, less than one billion cards have been shipped, while in 2006 about two billion cards are expected to be sold. Most of these cards are used in secority-sensitive applications like telecommunications, financial services, governmental services, corporate security, and pay TV. Smart cards are vital components of these applications, and hence, their security is crucial. Driven by the need to develop countenneasures, researchers have started investigating power analysis attacks in detail. Power analysis attacks have turned out to be a fascinating field of research. Understanding them requires know-how from different disciplines such as cryptology, statistics, measurement technology, and microelectronics. They have attracted the attention of researchers from all these fields. As a result, a large number of research articles has been published over the previous years. In fact, it has become quite challenging to keep track of all these publications and to understand how the presented ideas are related to each other. Furthennore, there is no introductory literature available to familiarize learners with all the different types of power analysis attacks and countenneasures. This book aims to fill this gap.

In this book, we provide a comprehensive introduction to power analysis attacks. Starting with a discussion of cryptographic devices, their design, and their power consumption, we bring together statistics and electrical engineering in order to explain and analyze different types of power analysis attacks and countermeasures. This book is written for researchers as well as for practitioners having a background in cryptology, security, or microelectronics.