Hardware Threats to an IoT Ecosystem
Tags: iothardware, iiotsolution
Published: 2020-04-08 07:22:23

While designing IoT devices, the hardware design is considered as a crucial component for the success of the IoT product. In order to assure the embedded IoT product fulfills the required function, utilizes low power and is secure and reliable, many challenges are faced by the IoT device manufacturers throughout the hardware designing phase of these devices. The integrity of hardware components is most important to the success of an IoT solution, but there are recently some crucial threat points on these devices which left unsolved and could be catastrophic.

IoT Security

The most important thing in IoT security is keeping the communicated data from IoT devices unaffected. Various Methods such as an end-to-end AES encryption are recently standard by most network protocols and are secured as well as tested. As IoT enabled devices are utilized and utilized by humans, a violator may try to access unofficial access to the device. An attack on data interfering at this level is hard and not worth the attacker’s time. IoT devices need low power and less computational ability. Because of this, they cannot manage to have composite protocols. Hence it becomes a simple target for intruders.

One of the most well-known attacks from the past years is a distributed denial of service (DDOS) which is an effort to damage traffic of a server, service or network by a huge ecosystem with a flood of Internet traffic by utilizing co-opted IoT devices to ping certain servers of the system. 

In such an attack, the data transferred may not be harmful, but the attack is successful in damaging the IoT ecosystem (https://www.hiotron.com/). Of all of the estimated DDOS attacks in 2018, 17% of these attacks were utilizing devices with no password authentication to acquire access to the device. In most cases, IoT devices are not are susceptible to third-party vulnerability – they either rest open or accessible to anyone. This means an attacker can simply steal the device and attach it with another device that including malicious data.

Generally, manufacturers of IoT devices would regulate practices likewise CryptoAuthentication and other hurdles to take control of devices, but frequently there is no financial incentive to do so. You can increase security by implementing conventional endpoint features such as antivirus, firewalls, anti-malware and intrusion protection with detection systems.

Authentication Breaches

Authentication should be an essential starting point for any IoT device. Assuring users authenticate their IoT devices are essential, viewing up to 54% of IoT customer really own up to 4 devices. Initiate with the multiple user management features for each IoT hardware device and apply strong authentication mechanisms. You can utilize two-factor authentication, digital certificates and biometrics.

BitFlip

The layers of insulating materials that are assumed to control the flow of electrons are especially small where a phenomena quantum tunneling needs to be examined. The electrons, sometimes behave as a particle, but can also act like a wave. Ideally, when a wave-behaving electron comes across a transistor with a small sufficient gate, quantum tunneling can take place and a state of 0 is now a 1, an unintended bit-flip. Recently, some transistors are utilizing 5nm nodes and soon 3nm nodes will be in the market. 
These transistors have the tendency of quantum mechanics which impacts the capability to assume the behavior of a system with complete conviction and makes bit-flipping a reality, but it isn’t the only threat that can execute bit-flipping. Solar wind and supernovas in space transmit a combination of charged particles and radiation such as gamma rays, neutrons, muons and alpha particles at Earth each minute. These particles also are responsible for bit-flipping. 
 
There is an IoT hardware solution to this circumstance called Error Correcting Code Memory (EECM), which is capable to fight against unintended bit flips by reserving parity bits and continuously running a detection algorithm via its memory.

Data and Sensor Integrity

The hardware integrity is crucial for the health and effectiveness of an IoT solution, but threats are not being well-controlled. Actual access to the authorization and tested manufacturing protocols of the IoT devices must be utilized. Without reliability at the lowest level of the ecosystem, an efficient and feasible solution cannot be situated and can, therefore, cause destruction to the people and environments dependent on the system. Compromised data integrity is one of the major threats to IoT hardware systems. 

You can check this with the help of an API security method to prevent your data integrity move in between IoT devices, applications and back-end systems with documented REST-based APIs. 

Threats to hardware systems need a good diagnostic architecture to assure the hardware of the IoT is secure. Carry out firm testing of the IoT device ability, range as well as latency. Chip manufactures of the IoT devices should also strengthen the processors to be safer but consume lesser power. This will assure that they will work better with IoT applications.
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