Security as a new dimension in embedded system design

• Published in: 2004 41st Conference Design Automation pp. 753 - 760
• Main Authors: Kocher, Paul, Lee, Ruby, McGraw, Gary, Raghunathan, Anand
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 01.01.2004; IEEE; Association for Computing Machinery
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Algorithm design and analysis; Applied computing > Computers in other domains > Personal computers and PC applications; Applied sciences; Communication system security; Computer networks; Computer systems organization > Architectures; Computer systems organization > Architectures > Parallel architectures > Very long instruction word; Computer systems organization > Architectures > Serial architectures > Complex instruction set computing; Computer systems organization > Architectures > Serial architectures > Reduced instruction set computing; Data security; Design methodology; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electronics; Embedded computing; Embedded system; Exact sciences and technology; General and reference > Document types > Computing standards, RFCs and guidelines; Information security; Integrated circuits; Power system security; Public key cryptography; Security and privacy > Cryptography > Public key (asymmetric) techniques; Security and privacy > Cryptography > Public key (asymmetric) techniques > Public key encryption; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Software and its engineering; architectures; viruses; PDAs; security processing; design methodologies; digital rights management; cryptography; software attacks; battery life; security protocols; tamper resistance; security; performance; sensors; embedded systems; design; trusted computing; Performance evaluation; System architecture; Circuit design; System design; Secondary cell; Algorithm; Embedded systems; Power consumption; Information protection; Electronic component; Software; Cryptography; Computer aided design
• ISBN: 1581138288; 9781581138283; 1511838288
• ISSN: 0738-100X
• DOI: 10.1145/996566.996771

The growing number of instances of breaches in information security in the last few years has created a compelling case for efforts towards secure electronic systems. Embedded systems, which will be ubiquitously used to capture, store, manipulate, and access data of a sensitive nature, pose several unique and interesting security challenges. Security has been the subject of intensive research in the areas of cryptography, computing, and networking. However, despite these efforts, security is often mis-construed by designers as the hardware or software implementation of specific cryptographic algorithms and security protocols. In reality, it is an entirely new metric that designers should consider throughout the design process, along with other metrics such as cost, performance, and power..This paper is intended to introduce embedded system designers and design tool developers to the challenges involved in designing secure embedded systems. We attempt to provide a unified and holistic view of embedded system security by first analyzing the typical functional security requirements for embedded systems from an end-user perspective. We then identify the implied challenges for embedded system architects, as well as hardware and software designers (e.g., tamper-resistant embedded system design, processing requirements for security, impact of security on battery life for battery-powered systems, etc.). We also survey solution techniques to address these challenges, drawing from both current practice and emerging research, and identify open research problems that will require innovations in embedded system architecture and design methodologies.