Securing the IoT: Technical Approaches to Defend and Protect IoT Nodes

Find the Latest SoC Solutions
for... Automotive... IoT... Security... Audio... Video

While securing IoT nodes is not the only step, it is a necessary step.

www.eetasia.com, Dec. 31, 2021 – 

Ten billion IoT nodes are connected today, 10× more than just a decade ago, and the trend is continuing unabated.

With this growth comes an equal growth of opportunities for attackers. The estimated annual cost of cyberattacks ranges from tens of billions of dollars to more than a trillion dollars, and this number, too, keeps rising. Therefore, security considerations are now essential to continue the successful scaling of the IoT. IoT security begins with the security of the IoT nodes.

No company wants to see its name in the same sentence as "breached, and customer data was stolen." What's more, connected devices are also subject to government regulations, such as FDA rules for medical devices, U.S./EU cybersecurity requirements for Industry 4.0 critical infrastructure, and several emerging standards for the automotive industry. Those requirements push for high-level security while not explicitly mandating the use of hardware-based security. However, IoT nodes are often large-volume, cost-optimized appliances, creating challenges to balance security and cost.

Creating secure nodes using a root of trust

How can we design a cost-efficient yet secure IoT node? Creating a secure IoT node begins with a root of trust (also known as a secure element), a small, affordable integrated circuit designed to offer security-related services to the node. Examples of these functions are data encryption for preserving confidentiality and digital signatures to ensure authenticity and the integrity of information. The ultimate goal of the root of trust is to ensure that the secret keys used for data encryption or digital signatures are protected against disclosure.

The biggest challenge for root-of-trust security ICs is resistance against physical attacks, such as direct probing and so-called side-channel attacks.

click here to read more...

 Back