Research Summary: Bringing Hardware Security Education to All: A Seamless Curriculum Integration Approach

An analysis of engineering education highlights an ongoing curriculum deficit: while cybersecurity training primarily emphasizes software and network layers, emerging threats across semiconductor supply chains, sensor-enabled systems, and machine-learning accelerators undermine the premise of hardware as an unquestioned root of trust. Current undergraduate computer science and electrical and computer engineering programs generally teach hardware functionality without integrating security concepts, prompting the need for integrated educational approaches.

Why it matters

Securing computing infrastructure requires addressing vulnerabilities at the physical and silicon layers where software roots of trust are anchored. Failing to embed hardware security competencies into foundational technical education leaves emerging systems, including AI accelerators, vulnerable to supply chain and design-level exploits. Ensuring baseline hardware assurance across industries relies directly on modernising the technical workforce pipeline.

Key insights

• Cybersecurity education predominantly focuses on software and network domains, assuming underlying hardware is inherently secure.
• Vulnerabilities arising during hardware design, integration, and across the global semiconductor supply chain undermine hardware as a root of trust.
• Emerging technologies such as sensor-enabled systems and machine-learning accelerators are actively expanding the hardware attack surface.
• Standard undergraduate curricula in electrical and computer engineering and computer science cover hardware functionality but overlook security dimensions.

Source

arXiv — Computers and Society — https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36219