Embedded Software for the IoT

10Security

10.1Introduction

Many people use the words “safety” and “security” more or less as synonyms. However, while safety is about avoiding accidents and people getting hurt, security is about securing data and equipment against malicious use and theft. In this chapter, we will focus on security. Since this is a book about IoT, it is probably not a surprise to the reader that more and more embedded devices are connected to the internet. Strangely, this sometimes is a surprise to the embedded programmer, or rather the culture surrounding embedded programming.

Not so long ago, an embedded programmer could get away with “it’s never going to be connected anyway.” The message was that it was okay not to think about security, because a hacker would ...