Securing Unprotected Devices is Essential in the IoT Age (.PDF Download)

As the Internet of Things (IoT) becomes more mainstream, every device—sensors, actuators, embedded microcontrollers, or smart appliances—needs to be protected from hacking, data breaches, and other security vulnerabilities. In particular, security is always a concern when deploying cloud services because it necessitates storing and using secret keys in the microcontroller—which, if unprotected, can expose them.

One way to hack an IoT device is to physically attack the embedded system and spoof the private key, which may be located in the clear of a microcontroller memory. If the private key is spoofed, the device can be impersonated by an unauthorized user who can then control the device’s transactions. Once accessed, a scalable remote attack could be launched, leveraging corrupted IoT devices as entry points.