The pursuit of digital sovereignty, intensified by global semiconductor shortages and geopolitical tensions, has triggered a wave of initiatives worldwide to strengthen semiconductor technologies and manufacturing at both national and regional levels. As a result, the importance of hardware security and trust in computing systems and supply chains has become more critical than ever.

Hardware security underpins the reliability and integrity of modern computing infrastructures. When compromised, it threatens essential system operations and exposes society to significant risks.

In recent years, however, vulnerabilities in hardware design and implementation have increasingly emerged within this shifting landscape. When exploited by unprivileged software, such weaknesses can reveal sensitive information or jeopardize entire computing platforms. This evolving threat landscape challenges decades of system security research, which traditionally centered on software vulnerabilities, and disrupts long-held assumptions about the inherent trustworthiness of hardware.