PUFFIN aims to protect against identity theft

The project, which brings together Intrinsic-ID, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Technische Universität Darmstadt and Eindhoven University of Technology, aims to show the existence of Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) properties in common computer hardware. The researchers have found that software can detect minute and uncontrollable manufacturing differences in seemingly identical graphics processors and say this can be used to reliably distinguishing processors from each other. These differences can be used as a PUF to link a particular graphics card to a specific user account, preventing theft of the user's identity. The researchers are now searching for similar manufacturing differences in other commodity hardware such as mobile phones, while exploring further applications of easy access to unforgeable electronic identities. Further work will explore how physically unclonable functions can encrypt and protect disks against theft without requiring users to remember long passwords.