An Interview with Joe FitzPatrick
Joe Fitzpatrick of SecurityHardware.com, a former CPU silicon security tester, explains how hardware vulnerabilities arise from Verilog assumptions and undocumented register behaviors, leading to his current focus on hardware security training. He details the evolution of attacks from simple JTAG access to sophisticated USB-C exploits involving microcontrollers in adapters, and discusses the NSA Playset's Slot Screamer device. Fitzpatrick argues that physical access often bypasses software security, highlighting the risks of unverified hardware like YubiKey clones and the ethical dilemmas of vulnerability disclosure in IoT and medical devices.