6.3.4 - Software in Measuring Instruments: Ways of Constructing Secure Systems

Event
18. GMA/ITG-Fachtagung Sensoren und Messsysteme 2016
2016-05-10 - 2016-05-11
Nürnberg, Germany
Chapter
6.3 Messunsicherheit und Funktionssicherheit von Messsystemen
Author(s)
D. Peters, F. Thiel - Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin (Germany)
Pages
480 - 487
DOI
10.5162/sensoren2016/6.3.4
ISBN
978-3-9816876-0-6
Price
free

Abstract

In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of connected devices is expected to exceed 25 billion in the year 2020. This also concerns legal metrology. Legal metrology comprises measuring instruments that are employed for commercial or administrative purposes or for measurements which are of public interest. More than 100 million legally relevant meters are in use in Germany. The central concern of legal metrology is to protect and ensure trust. For software, this also means that applications must be stable and withstand attacks. These attacks increase in all areas where devices are connected via an open network, i.e. the internet. Additionally, measuring instruments have evolved into powerful universal devices with unsecure system architectures. Such IT systems, running conventional operating systems, can be hardly secured. One solution to enforce security is by creating a component-based architecture which modularizes the critical software parts and isolates them. In this paper some methods are described, which can be used to achieve software separation, and therefore enhance security and flexibility.

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