Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
At the 30th edition of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, which took place in Copenhagen from 27-30 November 2023 and included a daylong workshop on artificial intelligence and security (AISec), Thales made a world-premiere presentation of a technique for carrying out a physical attack on an AI system.
Companies and organisations are now well aware of the risk of software attacks on their AI models, but less information is available about potential attacks on AI hardware.
With the increasing use of AI in defence systems (drones, vehicles, fighter aircraft, etc.), the security of these highly critical assets needs to be taken into account from the earliest design stage in order to protect the intellectual property they contain and safeguard national security interests.
Side-channel attack on an embedded AI system by Thales ThalesIn an AI system, software is embedded in physical hardware components. Physical attacks known as side-channel attacks attempt to gain access to sensitive information by observing indirect signals generated by physical components of the system. Thaless demonstration of a side-channel attack during the AISec workshop was intended to raise awareness of this new type of threat among members of the scientific and technical community and encourage them to take this potential vulnerability into account when developing their systems. The heat, power consumption or electromagnetic radiation generated by a system can be a valuable source of information for hackers. They can use this information to exploit the physical characteristics of a systems electronic components, understand how the embedded software functions, access its sensitive data and compromise the confidentiality of the parameters influencing the decisions made by the AI.
Joan Mazenc, Director of the Thales ITSEF1, said: The risk of side-channel attacks on AI systems has not been fully addressed, and specific developments are needed to guarantee their reliability and resilience and to protect the intellectual property they contain. By presenting this new threat to the international scientific and technical community at the AISec conference, Thales seeks to alert industry to this emerging risk and the advanced solutions and techniques required to build a trusted AI system.
The attack presented at the AISec conference was conducted in two steps:
1 . Attack by observation, in which the physical behaviour of the system was analysed during operation to reveal the secret parameters used by the targeted AI for classifying images.
Conventional laboratory techniques can measure the electromagnetic radiation generated by a systems electronic components. By reproducing this process thousands of times in a variety of conditions, an attack AI can be trained to recognise the observed radiation patterns and thereby identify the secret parameters of the target AI with no prior knowledge of the system being observed.
2 . Active attack, in which the parameters influencing the target AIs decisions were exploited in order to deceive the model by creating adversarial examples.
Here, the operator forces the AI to identify the figure 7 as a 5. ThalesThis attack used scripts capable of exploiting the secret parameters revealed in the first step in order to create an image that would be incorrectly classified by the AI.
In addition, a hacker with physical access to the target system could achieve the same objective by physically disturbing the component while the AI is running. Creating a quick disturbance in the electronic components power supply or exposing a circuit to a strong electromagnetic pulse could alter the AIs decisions, causing it to misclassify images. This type of fault injection attack also needs to be taken into consideration by embedded system designers in order to build a trusted AI.
Thales and AI
To counter these threats, Thales runs security evaluations at its ITSEF laboratory, which is accredited by the French National Cybersecurity Agency ANSSI, and draws on the Groups extensive expertise to propose customised solutions to mitigate any vulnerabilities that are detected.
As the Groups defence and security businesses address critical requirements, often with safety-of-life implications, Thales has developed an ethical and scientific framework for the development of trusted AI based on the four strategic pillars of validity, security, explainability and responsibility. Thales solutions combine the know-how of over 300 senior AI experts and more than 4,500 cybersecurity specialists with the operational expertise of the Groups aerospace, land defence, naval defence, space and other defence and security businesses.
About Thales
Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies within three domains: Defence & Security, Aeronautics & Space, and Digital Identity & Security. It develops products and solutions that help make the world safer, greener and more inclusive.
The Group invests close to 4 billion a year in Research & Development, particularly in key areas such as quantum technologies, Edge computing, 6G and cybersecurity.
Thales has 77,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2022, the Group generated sales of 17.6 billion.
1Information Technology Security Evaluation Facility
Documents
Physical hacking - Thales warns of new challenge to AI systems.pdf
Contact
Marion Bonnet, Press and social media manager, Security and Cyber
+33 (0)6 60 38 48 92 marion.bonnet@thalesgroup.com
15 Dec 2023
Thales Alenia Space has selected the UK's National Satellite Test Facility for FLEX satellite first test campaign
Read more
13 Dec 2023
Thales delivers the new integrated surveillance system to Melillas Command Headquarters
Read more
13 Dec 2023
Trust Bank and Thales Launch Singapore's First O
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
20/11/2025
LONDON The winners of the Rise Awards 2025, which recognize women and companies whose achievements have stood out in the media technology industry, have been an...
20/11/2025
SANTA MONICA & NEW YORK Lionsgate's Worldwide Television Distribution Group and Debmar-Mercury have launched MovieSphere Gold in more than 30 million homes....
20/11/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has introduced its four-channel HelixNet beltpack, a next-generation advancement of its widely used two-channel model, and anticipates...
20/11/2025
NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. Streaming technology and services provider Kiswe has launched Kiswe Core, a next-generation cloud-based platform designed to simplify the s...
20/11/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Dolby Laboratories has signed on as an official signature partner of the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) for the 2026 Super Bowl and the we...
20/11/2025
STUTTGART, Germany 3 Screen Solutions (3SS) has announced that the Canadian multiservice operator Telus has launched its Telus TV+ entertainment platform on Sam...
20/11/2025
Major League Baseball has announced deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix covering 2026-2028 that make ESPN the exclusive rightsholder of MLB.TV, see regula...
20/11/2025
Berklee Presents Holiday Extravaganza: Duke Ellingtons The Nutcracker Suite and ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
Facebook 
