Introduction to EM information security for IoT devices

Abstract

With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), many electronic devices (e.g., smart meters, surveillance cameras, mobile devices, and multiple sensors) are interconnected. Each device gathers data and uploads it to servers via communication networks. Servers store the large volumes of received data in databases. Applications analyze this data and extract valuable information. Finally, based on this information, new services (in domains such as smart cities, public safety, e-commerce, medical, healthcare, or automobile) are provided. In this data flow, systems and applications in the upper layer trust the hardware in the lower layer, which includes data-gathering devices. If the collected information is intentionally modified by adversaries, services in the upper layer could be disrupted. Therefore, to ensure service continuity in the IoT, it is important to secure the hardware layer in which data are harvested and transmitted. In this paper, we focus on hardware-level security in IoT systems and classify the schemes proposed for physical security of IoT into three categories. We also provide examples for each of these and explain threats and countermeasures.