Malicious modifications to integrated circuits — called hardware trojans — can disrupt wireless communication and leak sensitive information, and the threat is expected to grow as wireless phones and other devices evolve. Two University of Texas at Dallas engineers received a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate how to improve detection and removal of hardware trojans and how to make integrated circuits (IC) more resilient. Aria Nosratinia, the Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, is principal investigator for the grant, and Dr. Yiorgos Makris, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is co-principal investigator. Hardware trojans, once considered improbable, have become a threat because of the fragmentation of the integrated circuit design and manufacturing supply chain, Nosratinia said. The design for integrated circuits typically is sent to overseas fabrication facilities where small, unauthorized changes could be inserted.