Online Security From… Graphics Cards?

Published on October 1, 2012, by Adam C - Posted in Hardware, Internet 2

The researchers from the “Physically unclonable functions found in standard PC components” (PUFFIN) project say that seemingly identical graphics processors commonly used for gaming actually contain unique “fingerprints” that allows them to be differentiated from each other. Known as a physical unclonable function (PUF), these minute and uncontrollable manufacturing differences can be detected by software, allowing a particular graphics card to be linked to a specific user account.

Source: Gizmag

The elephant in the room is: What happens when your graphics card dies and you have to replace it?