Protecting communications with hardware accelerators for increased workflow security

Abstract

To protect customer data and provide increased workflow security for processing requested by a customer, a secure communicational channel can be established between a customer and one or more hardware accelerators such that even processes executing on a host computing device hosting such hardware accelerators are excluded from the secure communicational channel. An encrypted bitstream is provided to hardware accelerators and the hardware accelerators obtain therefrom cryptographic information supporting the secure communicational channel with the customer. Such cryptographic information is stored and used exclusively from within the hardware accelerator, rendering it inaccessible to processes executing on a host computing device. The cryptographic information can be a shared secret, an appropriate one of a pair of cryptographic keys, or other like cryptographic information. Similarly, the encrypted bitstream can comprise the cryptographic information, computer-executable instructions executable by the processing circuitry of the hardware accelerator to derive such cryptographic information, or combinations thereof.