Side Channel Monitoring of Embedded Secure and Safety Critical Devices in IoT

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The adoption of embedded systems for handling sensitive and private data is becoming increasingly widespread. Currently, embedded devices can be found in chip cards, smart phones, automobile, pacemakers, and many home automation and industrial control systems. New threats to these embedded devices include malware, malicious firmware updates, and physical threats. In general, software defenses designed to detect some of these threats have not been widely used in the embedded field largely because of associated high overheads and unsuitability. There is a need to research monitoring approaches for embedded systems to identify their state and to enable early response to threats. The proposed research program aims to establish the foundations for near-field and far-field monitoring of embedded devices using their electromagnetic (EM) emanations, also referred to as EM side channel. A statistical methodology for extracting features from EM emanations will be employed. Unlike previous work, this proposal will research detailed placement of near-field multiple probes based on the system architecture, which has not previously been considered. Enhancing carriers using intentional EM interference for acquiring more reliable far-field EM emanations will also be researched for the first time. The proposed near-field research will pave the way for the development of a monitoring device within the package of the chip. Research on far-field monitoring, has the potential to lead to a generic monitoring chip integrated with programmable directional antenna that can receive enhanced EM emanations from different parts of multiple embedded system boards. The far-field monitoring will be generic and applicable to a wider range of embedded applications. In both the proposed near- and far-field monitoring devices, functions include signal processing to extract and transmit features from the received EM emanations for offline processing to confirm activity or detect threats. This research is crucial for mitigating threats to critical embedded devices, particularly relevant to those within safety-critical and secure domains. Graduate students will gain in-depth skills in hardware, side channel, security, firmware, and software, and will be highly sought after in industry and academia. Security is an important field, critical for Canada, especially in the future IoT where experts will require an in-depth understanding of security, hardware and software. Advances in this area will help Canada stay in the forefront of future technology. The proposed research program represents an important step towards providing advanced training and establishing foundations for increased embedded security which is critical for the more pervasive future IoT environment. **