Memories for the Intelligent Internet of Things

7Memory in Security Issues for IoT

7.1 Introduction to Memory in Security Issues for IoT

On‐chip security systems are critical for IoT applications such as wearable devices and portable medical instruments. Any IoT application may store sensitive user information that needs to be protected. All nonvolatile memories such as the EEPROM, Flash, RRAM, FeRAM, and STT MRAM have security challenges, which involve persistent data that can be tampered with such as a password or cryptographic key. The vulnerability is due to the fundamental dependency of these memories on environmental parameters such as magnetic fields and temperature, which can be used to tamper with data. TAGs are generated for memory data authentication in embedded processor systems. Data integrity can be protected by attaching an identifying tag to individual data that becomes invalid if the data is altered. Face‐detection is a critical feature of many security systems. Several acceleration techniques exist for enabling this capability on a CPU‐FPGA platform.

Many nonvolatile memories have stochastic switching mechanisms and intrinsic variability that open a range of potential applications in hardware security. RRAMS, FeRAMs, and MRAMs have been studied for use as physical unclonable functions (PUF) in security systems.

7.2 Memories Used as Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs)

Memory can be used in security implementation by providing a physical unclonable function (PUF).

A PUF is a physical entity that is embodied in ...