Guest Editorial: Introduction to the Special Issue on Emerging Security Trends for Deeply-Embedded Computing Systems

Abstract

Unlike traditional embedded systems, nowadays, emerging computing systems are embedded in every aspect of human lives. These deeply-embedded computing systems often perform extremely sensitive tasks, and in some cases, such as health-care IT, these are life-saving. Thus, in addition to the security threats to traditional embedded systems, emerging deeply-embedded computing systems exhibit a larger attack surface, prone to more serious or life-threatening malicious attacks. These call for revisiting traditional security mechanisms not only because of the new facets of threats and more adverse effects of breaches, but also due to the resource limitations of these often-battery-powered and extremely-constrained computing systems. As such, new trends for providing security for deeply embedded systems are emerging; many of which abandoning use of cryptographic computations or making use of lightweight crypto-systems, feasible for these computing platforms. Indeed, there exists paramount potential for applying these emerging security approaches to sensitive applications such as health-care IT for implantable medical devices, big data analytics and machine learning in deeply embedded systems, smart buildings, and smart fabrics.