CIA for SBCs (and More)

Securing Embedded Systems from Evolving Threats

- By Curtis Franklin, Editor-In-Chief

Security for embedded systems takes many forms to protect many components from many threats. For engineers and developers, the key is keeping everything working together for the highest security with the lowest negative impact.

Cybersecurity has many qualities. Simplicity tends not to be among them. And as the processors, computers, controllers, and components used to create embedded control applications have become more capable and complex, security simplicity has receded farther and farther from view.

Embedded system security in 2025 is driven by a variety of factors. First, of course, is the rising complexity and sophistication of the threats facing embedded systems. This is tied directly to the increasing desirability of embedded control and operational technology as targets for malicious activity. Those increasingly sophisticated attacks are being directed at an attack surface that's growing by leaps and bounds.

In security, the “attack surface” is the collection of vulnerable points that present opportunities for malicious activity. Every interface, link, connection, and port presents just such an opportunity and the number of these points has grown by leaps and bounds as embedded systems have become more connected to one another, to back-end IT, and to cloud services.

The connection to systems and services beyond the embedded has brought elements from corporate governance to federal regulation into play. These elements can be prescriptive but tend to be outcome-oriented, though outcomes that are defined by the absence of something can be tricky in their own right.

So, with many factors pushing embedded system security forward, let's look at some of the specifics and how they're having an impact on the systems you build.

WALKING DOWN THE CHAIN