Kevin Mitnick recently told the Freescale Technology Forum that the Internet of Things (IoT) is “exploitable.” “I don’t know any system out there that’s impenetrable,” the hacker turned security consultant emphasized during a conference symposium cited by DesignNews. “In our experience, when we are hired by clients to attack their systems, our success rate is 100%.”
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Mitnick says the IoT is exploitable
Kevin Mitnick recently told the Freescale Technology Forum that the Internet of Things (IoT) is “exploitable.”
“I don’t know any system out there that’s impenetrable,” the hacker turned security consultant emphasized during a conference symposium cited by DesignNews. “In our experience, when we are hired by clients to attack their systems, our success rate is 100%.”
More specifically, says Mitnick, the IoT is plagued by many of the same issues corporate computer networks face, including lack of encryption, authentication weaknesses and password resets.
“Those same vulnerabilities exist in the IoT,” he added. “If I want to get information from a device, all I have to do is go out and buy one and then extract the firmware.”
Bob O’Donnell, the Founder and Chief Analyst of Technalysis Research, expressed similar sentiments in an essay posted on ReCode.
“Whether we want to admit it or not, anything that gets connected to either a wired or wireless network has the potential to be — and probably at some point will be — hacked,” O’Donnell opined. “Whether it’s a security camera we install in our homes, a connected module inside our new cars, or an automated building HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) system within the buildings we work or visit, the threat is there.”
According to O’Donnell, most new IoT devices aren’t being brought to market with a robust security model in mind.
“Instead, the focus is on offering simple connectivity in order to give them new functionality, with easy access being a core part of this new capability,” he explained. “Combine this with all the well-intended efforts that have been introduced over the last several years to make networking easier, and you’ve got the recipe for a potential disaster.”
That is why David Bray, CIO of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), says companies must begin treating security breaches like infectious diseases by focusing on “signs, symptoms and demographics” to prevent a wider outbreak.
“By 2022, there will be more data on the planet than all human eyes will see in the course of a year,” Bray told the Cloud World Forum in a statement quoted by ITPro. “The future is going to surprise us. We need to start thinking about how we actually prepare for it now.”
Zainab Al-Shamma, a security marketing manager at Rambus, recommends manufacturers of IoT devices and platforms adopt a hardware-based security strategy – beginning at the SoC level itself.
“A hardware-centric approach will help ensure that SoCs powering the IoT remain secure during the manufacturing process. In addition, embedding the appropriate security IP core into an IoT device or platform will go a long way in helping companies design systems that remain secure throughout their respective lifecycles.”
The IoT is all about sensors
Steve Taylor, a senior consultant at The Technology Partnership (TTP), has recommended that semiconductor companies turn their attention to the Internet of Sensors (IoS). According to Taylor, it’s actually the Internet of Sensors and resulting data that matters most. “The Internet of Things (IoT) is, to a large extent, a solution looking for a problem, rather than the other way round,” he explained. “There’s simply no point in objects talking to each other just for the sake of it and the IoT only provides the communications backbone.”
The IoT is all about sensors
Steve Taylor, a senior consultant at The Technology Partnership (TTP), has recommended that semiconductor companies turn their attention to the Internet of Sensors (IoS). According to Taylor, it’s actually the Internet of Sensors and resulting data that matters most.
“The Internet of Things (IoT) is, to a large extent, a solution looking for a problem, rather than the other way round,” he explained. “There’s simply no point in objects talking to each other just for the sake of it and the IoT only provides the communications backbone.”
In contrast, says Taylor, the Internet of Sensors looks more like the roots of a tree, with sensors of all types at the extremities, capturing and feeding data upwards to the main trunk – the Internet.
“It’s important to look at the needs first and then create systems around them. In this world, small changes in the sensor map can lead to very significant commercial gains,” he continued. “[For example], there is a need to pump more data to the Cloud, to gain greater insight into systems and how they perform in reality. This information is extremely valuable, particularly if you can blend local sensor data with historical data.”
Commenting on the above-mentioned report, Kendra De Berti, a director at Rambus, noted that simple-function, sensor-laden endpoints are expected to become ubiquitous as new layers of smart infrastructure go online. More specifically, says De Berti, environmentally aware ‘lite’ endpoints will be tasked with capturing, analyzing and transferring data to various devices and the Cloud.
“Although basic endpoints require less computing power than current mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, they still need to meet stringent compute and low-power specifications – perhaps even lasting weeks or months on a single charge,” she explained.
That is why, says De Berti, Rambus is developing its lensless smart sensor (LSS) technology for a new age of ubiquitous connectivity. Indeed, LSS allows sensors to capture information-rich images using a low-cost phase grating.
“The spiral grating of LSS diffractive optics (hardware), coupled with sophisticated computational algorithms (software), reduces computation time while facilitating application-specific design flexibility,” De Berti added. “Computation is effectively pushed past the ‘edge’ and performed on the LSS sensors themselves.”
Interested in learning more? You can check out our lensless smart sensor article archive here and the official LSS page here.
ReRAM evolves for the IoT
Writing for Semiconductor Engineering, Ernest Worthman notes that next-generation IoT/E devices will face a plethora of power, footprint and electronic constraints. According to Steven Woo, VP of solutions marketing and distinguished inventor at Rambus, non-volatile memory (NVM) could very well play an important role in the IoE of the future.
ReRAM evolves for the IoT
Writing for Semiconductor Engineering, Ernest Worthman notes that next-generation IoT/E devices will face a plethora of power, footprint and electronic constraints.
According to Steven Woo, VP of solutions marketing and distinguished inventor at Rambus, non-volatile memory (NVM) could very well play an important role in the IoE of the future.
“NVM doesn’t consume any power during non-use, which is a requirement for many of the low-power IoE devices that are going to need to draw very little power during turn on and turn off and no power at rest,” Woo told the publication.
“In the future, when one is talking about IoE devices, by far the No. 1 design goal is to have as small as possible power budgets. There are [also] some things about this platform [ReRAM] that makes it a bit easier to integrate in terms of the existing SoC design flow.”
While it still may be a bit early on the memory development map for geometries lower than 20nm (a top-shelf target density), a number of ReRAM advantages are already quite clear.
“It has a simple structure with good scalability [and] offers high speed, with switching times as low as 10ns, at low power. It has the ability to switch a bit using only 1 femtojoule,” Worthman explained.
“And it has a very desirable feature—ease of integration with CMOS back-end-of-the-line processes. Finally, it has the potential to be built in extremely dense crossbar arrays.”
Woo concurs, although he acknowledges that there are still a number of technical issues to work out with ReRam, including integrating the memory with existing manufacturing processes.
So, how does ReRAM work? Simply put, ReRAM uses resistance rather than electrical charges to alter the bits within a cell.
“The [basic] principle is that when voltage is applied, the resistance changes. The state change is, of course, from zero to one, or vice versa,” Worthman explained. “Being a type of NVM, once the state is set, it remains set until the next change cycle.”
Of course, not all ReRAM is alike.
“Depending on what the application may be, the different types can have different underlying material, which support distinct properties, such as various access times, retention capability and power consumption,” he continued. “For example, certain fabrications provide best-of-breed data retention while others can exhibit extremely fast read/write times.”
In addition, says Worthman, ReRAM makes use of a “memristor,” or memory resistor.
“This is a form of passive circuit element, which maintains a relationship between the time integrals of current and voltage across a two-terminal element. Essentially, it is a nanoscale voltage-controlled resistor,” he explained.
“One type of ReRAM consists of titanium oxide as an insulator. One side of it contains oxygen molecules, which move across to the other side if a voltage potential is placed across it, reflecting a ‘1’ state. Returning the oxygen molecules to the other side returns the memory to the off state.”
According to Worthman, typical applications for ReRAM include computer memory, microcontrollers, smartphones, tablets, automobile navigation systems and digital cameras.
“Once high-density arrays can be reliably produced, ReRAM will have a lot of applicability for IoE devices that need fast switching and low power,” he added. “[Plus], its flexible configurability, via materials, means it can be used in a wide variety of IoE devices.”
It should be noted that Rambus recently confirmed a RRAM partnership with researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. According to Rambus Labs VP Gary Bronner, RRAM could potentially capture a lucrative position between flash memory and DRAM.
“Many semiconductor companies have expressed a strong interest in ReRAM,” Bronner concluded. “As such, our collaborative goal with Tsinghua researchers is to explore how to further improve the non-volatile memory so that it is ultimately suitable for consumer devices as well as more demanding platforms and environments.”
