4 research outputs found

    IOT: Challenges in Information Security Training

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    Both consumers and businesses are rapidly adopting IoT premised on convenience and control. Industry and academic literature talk about billions of embedded IoT devices being implemented with use-cases ranging from smart speakers in the home, to autonomous trucks, and trains operating in remote industrial sites. Historically information systems supporting these disparate use-cases have been categorised as Information Technology (IT) or Operational Technology (OT), but IoT represents a fusion between these traditionally distinct information security models. This paper presents a review of IEEE and Elsevier peer reviewed papers that identifies the direction in IoT education and training around information security. It concludes that the education/training still is largely distinct and is not addressing the needs of this hybrid IT and OT model. IoT is complex as it melds embedded systems and software in support of interaction with physical systems. While literature contains implementation specific research, papers that address appropriate methodologies and content around secure design are piecemeal in nature. We conclude that in the rush to find implementation specific strategies the overarching strategy around education and training of secure IoT design is not being adequately addressed. Consequently, we propose a novel approach to how IoT education training can better incorporate the topic of secure design at a foundational level

    On the Design and Misuse of Microcoded (Embedded) Processors — A Cautionary Note

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    Today\u27s microprocessors often rely on microcode updates to address issues such as security or functional patches. Unfortunately, microcode update flexibility opens up new attack vectors through malicious microcode alterations. Such attacks share many features with hardware Trojans and have similar devastating consequences for system security. However, due to microcode\u27s opaque nature, little is known in the open literature about the capabilities and limitations of microcode Trojans. We introduce the design of a microcoded RISC-V processor architecture together with a microcode development and evaluation environment. Even though microcode typically has almost complete control of the processor hardware, the design of meaningful microcode Trojans is not straightforward. This somewhat counter-intuitive insight is due to the lack of information at the hardware level about the semantics of executed software. In three security case studies we demonstrate how to overcome these issues and give insights on how to design meaningful microcode Trojans that undermine system security. To foster future research and applications, we publicly release our implementation and evaluation platform
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