A security lab director described a strategy widely adopted in hardware and cybersecurity research: hire engineers to actively attack chips, cards and systems to surface vulnerabilities. The lab’s approach—testing power analysis, electromagnetic injection, lasers and silicon teardown—aims to make secure hardware resilient before deployment in critical infrastructure. The piece traces the evolution of secure chips from payment cards to identity and national-infrastructure applications, arguing that academic and industrial labs must simulate adversary tactics to produce trustworthy systems. It positions adversarial testing as integral to research programs in computer engineering and cybersecurity. This approach has curriculum implications: engineering programs will need hands-on coursework in hardware security, labs with destructive testing capabilities, and partnerships with industry and defense sponsors who fund vulnerability research and remediation.