Physical Protection, Monitoring, and Tamper Resistance
Stub. The physical-world half of security engineering: physical protection of premises/assets, monitoring and metering (utility meters, odometers, and the incentives to defeat them), security printing and seals (tamper-evidence for physical documents/goods), biometrics as a physical authentication factor, physical tamper resistance for devices holding secrets, and emission security (TEMPEST — preventing secrets leaking as physical radiation).
Groups Anderson’s cluster of “the adversary can touch the hardware” chapters. Physical protection and monitoring/metering are about preventing and detecting physical tampering with premises and devices (including the specific, recurring problem of a device whose owner is the adversary — a prepaid meter, an odometer — trying to defeat its own metering). Security printing and seals extend tamper-evidence to physical documents and goods (banknotes, seals on shipping containers). Biometrics covers using a physical characteristic as an authentication factor, and its specific failure modes (false accept/reject rates, spoofing, non-revocability of a compromised biometric). Physical tamper resistance and emission security (TEMPEST) round out the topic by asking how a device holding a secret can resist an adversary with direct physical or close-proximity access — up to and including reading the secret off electromagnetic emissions the device leaks passively.
Outline (TODO — flesh out each)
- Physical protection of premises and assets
- Monitoring and metering — defeating your own meter
- Security printing and seals
- Biometrics — false accept/reject, spoofing, non-revocability
- Physical tamper resistance
- Emission security (TEMPEST)