IT security project: implementation of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) on a smart card

We propose an interdisciplinary IT security lab project which combines topics of computer architecture, cryptography and software engineering. In this lab undergraduate students of EE/CS are supposed to efficiently implement the cryptographic block cipher Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) on a smart card with an embedded Atmel ATMega163 Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microcontroller in assembly. Moreover, the students learn about side channel attacks. Side channel attacks are based on the fact that data processed by a microprocessor is generally correlated with its power consumption and electromagnetic radiation. Finally, the students learn how to secure their implementations against these attacks using software countermeasures, such as random operand blinding and dummy cycles.