TechTarget and Informa Tech’s Digital Business Combine. Dark Reading Resource Library Black Hat News Omdia Cybersecurity Advertise NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP Cybersecurity Topics World The Edge DR Technology Events Resources CYBER RISK ENDPOINT SECURITY ICS/OT SECURITY СLOUD SECURITY News, news analysis, and commentary on the latest trends in cybersecurity technology. Emerging Chiplet Designs Spark Fresh Cybersecurity Challenges As scaled-down circuits with limited functions redefine computing for AI systems and autonomous vehicles, their flexibility demands new approaches to safeguard critical infrastructure. Agam Shah,Contributing Writer February 19, 2026 4 Min Read SOURCE: SILKWAYRAIN VIA ISTOCK PHOTO Chiplets are replacing old chip designs and driving semiconductor design, enabling breakthroughs in next-generation artificial intelligence data centers and self-driving vehicles. But they also put applications and infrastructure at risk. By stitching together smaller silicon components — all with different functions — into a single circuit, chiplets offer greater design flexibility and reusability than traditional chips. With traditional monolithic chip designs, each chip is built from scratch for a specific purpose, and changing the use case requires creating a whole new chip. Chiplets are a mix-and-match of components to create solutions that meet the exact needs of the customer, so it is quick and easy to swap out components to adapt to a different use case. But the flexibility of chiplets could also expose AI infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, and critical computing devices to supply chain risks and expanded attack surfaces, says Alex Matrosov, co-founder of firmware security company Binarly. Related:TransUnion's Real Networks Deal Focuses on Robocall Blocking LOADING... "The idea of chiplets is actually good," Matrosov says. "But it introduces complexity, and from a security perspective, that complexity is not taken very seriously." Conventional chip designs were monolithic, with a single vendor controlling the design and fabrication of an entire circuit on a single die. In contrast, chiplets are modular, and manufacturing is distributed — with global supply chains and multiple vendors involved in designing, validating and manufacturing chiplets and assembling them into a package. This situation increases the risk of introducing vulnerabilities that could expose critical systems to hardware Trojans, supply chain attacks, and backdoored components. One hardware Trojan introduced into a single chiplet can sabotage the integrity of the whole system. LOADING... "In the future, you're going to have different chiplets being manufactured in different locations using different distributors and different integrators of these multi-die systems," says Dana Neustadter, senior director of product management for Security IP Solutions at Synopsys, which provides design tools to top chip companies. "If that chiplet is vulnerable and it has significant security flaws, it can not only break a family of data center systems, it can expand to cars and to consumer devices," Neustadter says. "A malicious chiplet can be used to snoop, to modify, like man-in-the-middle kind of attacks." U.S. companies rely heavily on overseas vendors, often with limited ability to verify how chips are fabricated. That could extend to chiplets, and there may not be enough provenance on the origins of a chiplet design or silicon. Related:Tenable Tackles AI Governance, Shadow AI Risks, Data Exposure "It's very rare places when the chips could be produced inside of the US… You can design a perfect chip but you don't know how it will be baked in silicon," Matrosov says. Buyers often "blindly trust" bulk orders without deep inspection, he adds. "Companies want to make chips as cheap as possible… and from that perspective, there are a lot of problems from the supply chain," Matrosov says. Security is a Must Chiplets are trending toward new computing paradigms such as AI, and security needs to be approached differently. That includes stronger identity, authentication, and secure-boot mechanisms across multiple dies. "It's not as simple as saying chiplets are better or worse from a security point of view… it's different," Neustadter says. Every chiplet shold be identified and authenticated, he explains. Synopsys emphasizes traceability across multi-die and chiplet systems, rather than treating individual chiplets as inherently trusted components. The highly regulated automotive sector is at the forefront of chiplet security. One defective chiplet could trigger a costly car recall, and the international industry standards ISO 26262 and ISO 21434 require security to be addressed throughout the entire supply chain. Related:New Tech Deployments That Cyber Insurers Recommend for 2026 "If the chiplet is going to be used in the car or in mission-critical space, safety and reliability, hand in hand with security, is a must," Neustadter said. Athos Silicon, which builds secure AI chips and chiplets for autonomous cars, has created an audit mechanism across its supply chain and design. The company used “a lot of third-party” suppliers before, but has taken most of the design and development in-house to gain better control. "We have reduced this to almost nothing," says François Piednoel, chief technology officer. As required by regulation, Athos and its customers visit and audit the remaining parts suppliers. "The procurement team literally sends people to the factory you are planning to use, and they review the claims. They don't trust you," says Piednoel, a former Mercedes-Benz and Intel executive. Chiplets are better than traditional chips for cars using AI required for Level 3 or Level 4 autonomous driving. Athos' chip has multiple failover mechanisms, and one chiplet can take over in case another one fails or is attacked. When that happens, the last cypher has to be maintained in all the chiplets capable of taking over, Piednoel explains. Athos' hardware schedulers operate independently of software control, creating whitelisted processes that make it difficult for attackers to inject malicious code, even if they compromise the software layer. "If you want to have a safe chip, power management needs to be safe. Scheduling needs to be safe. Health monitoring needs to be safe," Piednoel says. Industry organizations such as UCIe Consortium are developing security standards. But chiplets are new, hackers are hungry and it's the start of the AI era, and standards are not experts said . "The systems evolve, the threats evolve, and the attackers also evolve," says Synopsys's Neustadter. “You have to keep up with those changes.” About the Author Agam Shah Contributing Writer Agam Shah has covered enterprise IT for more than a decade. Outside of machine learning, hardware, and chips, he's also interested in martial arts and Russia. More Insights Industry Reports ThreatLabz 2025 Ransomware Report The Total Economic Impact™ Of Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) Zscaler ThreatLabz 2025 VPN Risk Report GigaOm Radar for CNAPP The Total Economic Impact™ of Google SecOps Access More Research Webinars Building a Robust SOC in a Post-AI World Retail Security: Protecting Customer Data and Payment Systems Rethinking SSE: When Unified SASE Delivers the Flexibility Enterprises Need Securing Remote and Hybrid Work Forecast: Beyond the VPN AI-Powered Threat Detection: Beyond Traditional Security Models More Webinars You May Also Like CYBER RISK SecurityScorecard Buys AI Automation Capabilities, Boosts Vendor Risk Management by Fahmida Y. Rashid SEP 15, 2025 CYBER RISK Microsoft Exchange 'Under Imminent Threat,' Act Now by Arielle Waldman NOV 12, 2025 CYBER RISK Industrial System Cyberattacks Surge as OT Stays Vulnerable by Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer FEB 25, 2025 CYBERATTACKS & DATA BREACHES DeepSeek Breach Opens Floodgates to Dark Web by Emma Zaballos APR 22, 2025 Latest Articles in DR Technology REMOTE WORKFORCE Zscaler-SquareX Deal Boosts Zero Trust, Secure Browsing Capabilities FEB 13, 2026 ENDPOINT SECURITY Booz Allen Announces General Availability of Vellox Reverser to Automate Malware Defense FEB 12, 2026 IDENTITY & ACCESS MANAGEMENT SECURITY SpecterOps Launches BloodHound Scentry to Accelerate the Practice of Identity Attack Path Management FEB 12, 2026 APPLICATION SECURITY Automaker Secures the Supply Chain With Developer-Friendly Platform FEB 11, 2026 Read More DR Technology Discover More Black Hat Omdia Working With Us About Us Advertise Reprints Join Us NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP Follow Us Copyright © 2026 TechTarget, Inc. d/b/a Informa TechTarget. This website is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget, part of a global network that informs, influences and connects the world’s technology buyers and sellers. All copyright resides with them. Informa PLC’s registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. TechTarget, Inc.’s registered office is 275 Grove St. Newton, MA 02466. Home| Cookie Policy| Privacy| Terms of Use