Secure Embedded Systems: Digging for the Roots of Trust

Many embedded designs absolutely have to work right. A malfunction could do unacceptable harm to persons or property. Until recently, this requirement has been addressed through careful design and hardware reliability: if the software and the logic are right and there are no hardware failures, the system will work.

But today we live in the age of undeclared cyber warfare. If your system must work, you must assume that everyone from bored hackers to criminal gangs to lavishly funded government laboratories will attack it. In order to defend your system, you must determine what—and, eventually, whom—you can trust. This is not an easy, or, some argue, even an achievable quest. But undertake it you must.

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