This is a cat-and-mouse that can always be won by a sufficiently advanced cat. Whatever protection circuit you design, the attacker can decap the chip, put a wi

This is a cat-and-mouse that can always be won by a sufficiently advanced cat. Whatever protection circuit you design, the attacker can decap the chip, put a wire on the right node in that circuit and force it to disabled. But that's really really hard, and most cats can't do it. It's reassuring that the owner of a device will always own it, in the end.