Side-channel attacks are a physical type of threat that aims to recover sensitive data manipulated by your code without using cryptanalysis, or taking advantage of software vulnerabilities. In practice, algorithms are implemented and run on real-world devices (your laptop, your server, your smartcard, your phone…).
In other words, code needs a hardware reality in order to function. Naturally, physical devices have physical properties. For example, your processor will take an amount of time to process data, will consume more or less power, emit electromagnetic waves, produce heat, or even sound as it operates.
Read more about why side channel analysis matters in our whitepaper.
