Central Anti-Tamper Engine (CATE)

Modern sensor technology is capable of detecting miniscule changes in an operating environment, and providing a vast supply of precise data regarding potential causes for alarm. Unfortunately, since many tamper-detection responses involve disabling critical program information, the system designer must establish thresholds that are either set loose enough to not provide an adequate level of security, or are so draconian that the protection becomes a operational liability. Thus either the tamper detection devices function at crippled levels, or the protected devices suffer from unacceptable failure rates in the field. CATE (Central Anti-Tamper Engine) is effectively a standardized AT decision engine which can be inserted into any number of AT activities to provide an “off-the-shelf” component for monitoring inputs from the various AT sensors. By using advanced decision engine technology, CATE reduces the risk of false alarms, allowing sensors to be used with stricter response thresholds without risking a compromise of the system while minimizing the device failure rate. The inputs, their meaning, and their relationships are unique to each AT activity, but the decision engine and supporting tools will be provided as a common platform. CATE will make powerful decision-making available without exposing root software responsible for creating the network.