Security of Ubiquitous Computing Systems: Selected Topics

Why Tiny Connected Devices Need Serious Security 🔒

Modern life runs on constrained, connected hardware—sensors, passports, smart cards, home assistants, and embedded systems that have limited memory, modest processing power, and a direct link to valuable data. Security of Ubiquitous Computing Systems: Selected Topics gathers research-driven perspectives on protecting exactly these environments. Edited by Gildas Avoine and Julio Hernandez-Castro, the volume brings together work developed under the European COST Action CRYPTACUS and offers an open access route to the state of the art as of 2020.

What This Collection Covers

Across thirteen chapters organized into five parts, the book moves from broad security challenges to concrete cryptographic building blocks and real-world implementation concerns.

• Part I – Introduction: Emerging security challenges for ubiquitous devices, including malicious device attacks and the watchdog concept.
• Part II – Lightweight Cryptographic Primitives: A catalogue of lightweight primitives, selected design and analysis techniques for symmetric encryption, and an account of the ISO/IEC standardization controversy around the Simon and Speck block cipher families.
• Part III – Authentication Protocols: ePassport and eID technologies, ultra-lightweight authentication, and the evolution from relay attacks to distance-bounding protocols.
• Part IV – Hardware Implementation and Systems: Side-channel analysis with machine learning, assessment platforms and tools, challenges in certifying hardware random number generators, and techniques for finding firmware bugs in embedded devices.
• Part V – Privacy and Forensics: A privacy-oriented 5-D analysis of ubiquitous computing systems and the distinct open problems of IoT forensics.

Who Can Benefit Most

The editors describe the volume as aimed at advanced undergraduate students, master’s and early PhD candidates, and engineers or practitioners who want quick, authoritative exposure to IoT security topics. Because each chapter can be read independently, readers can jump directly to authentication protocols, side-channel tools, or privacy analysis without reading in sequence.

Why the Subject Matters Today 📡

Ubiquitous computing has moved from research labs into passports, cars, medical devices, and smart homes. The security decisions made in these constrained devices determine whether personal data, safety, and trust remain intact. This collection explains not only current answers but also open problems and promising future research directions that may shape the field.

A Practical, Research-Led Reference

Written by active researchers and made openly accessible, this book works as both a reference and a starting point for deeper study. If you work on embedded security, IoT systems, or applied cryptography, the perspectives here offer a faster route to understanding the core issues and the next research questions.