Cybersecurity and Embedded Systems

Securing embedded systems

by Charles Parker

Embedded systems are all around us and everything you do. If you drive a car, have a

smartphone or connected consumer device (e.g., refrigerator, oven, thermostat, or another

device), you interact and depend on these.

One aspect of this that has not received enough attention is applying security. With many of

these devices, the features and OS may not be updated due to:

Costs (many of these have slim margins and updating them would be a significant

financial burden),

Not viable to update these or provide warranty work, or

They may consider this end of life (EoL).

While updates may not make financial sense, there is still the obligation to secure the devices.

To secure embedded systems, TPMs and other like devices have been used to secure secrets

and other data. To ensure none of the secrets are removed, a team from the University of

Vermont engineered a new method for engineering the chips. The nuance with other chips is

when the chip detects it has been compromised, the chip self-destructs.

This function as a security measure, as the secrets would then be gone, but also a tool for anti-

counterfeiting. This function is done by using Physically Unclonable functions (PUFs). This

creates a unique fingerprint for each chip.

For this to work, the chip increases the voltage to the PCB leads for the encryption keys. The

first method causes electromigration. This causes metal atoms to move from their location. This

creates voids and open circuits. The alternative method creates a short-circuit. The chip, which

is engineered to operate at under 1V, increases the V to 2.5V. This kills the chip.

About the author-

Charles Parker II has been working in the info sec field for over a decade, in the banking,

 medical, automotive, and staffing industries. Charles has matriculated and attained the MBA,

 MSA, JD, LLM, and is in the final stage of the PhD in Information Assurance and Security

 (ABD) from Capella University. Mr. Parker’s areas of interest include cryptography, AV, and

 SCADA.