Vulnerabilities in OS and application software, although hard to eliminate, are well known.  This talk will look a couple layers down in the stack to securing the lowest-level software in a device, often referred to as firmware, with the intent of blocking hard-to-find and hard-to-eradicate attacks classified as Advanced Persistent Threats.

The talk covers why firmware is uniquely-difficult to protect, introduces the Root of Trust concept, and goes on to describe technology such as the Trusted Computing Group’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM), as a component to enhance a device’s ability to defend itself against APTs.  Although low-level security issues can exist in any computing environment, this talk focuses on IoT and Industrial IoT applications.

 

 

 

Guy C. Fedorkow is a Distinguished Engineer at Juniper Networks.  He received the BASc in Engineering Science and MASc in Electrical Engineering at University of Toronto, and went on to develop both packet-switching technology and high-throughput parallel computer architectures at Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, MA.  At Cisco Systems, he did hardware design and system architecture for cell-switching and high-scale internet service provider routers.  Continuing at Juniper Networks, he has served as system architect for high-throughput Internet service provider products. Guy is currently working on trusted computing technologies to protect underlying computational infrastructure in router, switch and firewall products at Juniper Networks, and is a Fellow in the MIT Connection Sciences group. https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-fedorkow-3b65151/