Security Checklist for

the Internet of Things

An essential guide to securing connected products

January 3rd, 2017

 By the end of 2020, there will be 21B IoT devices worldwide,**
creating a massive network of self-driving cars, connected energy grids, and smart
appliances. As innovative companies build towards this connected future, they
must constantly evaluate the risks that come with these large IoT networks.

This paper will detail the unique risks of connected devices and best practices for
IoT security. It is based on the advice of experienced professionals and leaders in
this emerging field. It includes:

An Exploration of Security Risk (3)

A Security Checklist for IoT Products (5)
The Particle Approach to Security (7)
Device Protocol Security
Hardware and Device Security
Cloud Security
Physical Security
Company Policies

Selecting an IoT platform can mitigate risk if the platform has implemented ap-
propriate, full-stack security practices. These practices extend from the device
hardware to the cloud.

** http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317

January 3rd, 2017 2

An Exploration of IoT Security Risk

In October 2016, a botnet of IoT security cameras, set-top boxes, routers and similar devices attacked
Dyn, a prominent domain and service provider. Dyn underwent a massive internet outage that cost mil-
lions of dollars in productivity losses alone. In the wake of the Dyn hack, many decision-makers realized
that they needed to consider not just functionality, but security and reliability as key features of the IoT
platforms they were buying and building.

The Dyn hack, while the most visible, is not the only example of critical IoT security failures in recent
years. Vulnerabilities in some solar panels allow hackers to spy on and control power access to homes.
Security holes in certain toys exposed images of children and their parents to malicious third parties. In
industry and consumer fields alike, security has already been compromised and data lost.

To protect devices, customers, and businesses, decision-makers must be vigilant about the unique risks
of an IoT system. These risks include:

Customer Data Exposure

Many IoT devices measure and transmit sensitive data. Fitness trackers, heart rate monitors,
sleep trackers, and security systems all transmit data that could be used maliciously.

Corporate Data Exposure

When connected directly to a company’s data center, IoT devices open security holes funda-
mentally outside the expertise of most in-house IT staff. These systems may cause catastrophic
vulnerability and data loss.

January 3rd, 2017 3

Physical Damage
Many IoT products contain actuators which can physically harm customers if they are improper-
ly triggered. Heating elements found in connected ovens and coffee makers can potentially cause
a fire. Connected cars can be shut off mid-drive, or have their brakes disabled by a third party.

High-Risk Downtime
Some IoT services can pose fatal threats in the case of service failure. Connected medical devices
must still function correctly when offline. An automated pet feeder could endanger the life of a
pet if the service supporting it has unplanned downtime.

Broader Liability
As detailed above, IoT hacks can create liability for physical harm that goes beyond data loss or
identity theft. Hacks to these products can have existential life and property liability, which has
been shifted to the companies producing connected devices.

Reputation and Brand Damage

Brand-focused corporations can suffer massive losses in the wake of a security attack. With
numerous outlets online and off, consumers have increased voice and impact. Companies must
guard against any large scale news event that damages reputation.

January 3rd, 2017 4

A Security Checklist for IoT Products

Developers and decision-makers can combat the unique risks of IoT by preventing potential attacks and
taking actions to ensure the continued safety of their connected systems. This checklist covers areas to
review in creating a minimal attack surface area, as well as features and actions key to maintaining
a secure system in a rapidly evolving field.

Minimal Attack Surface Area

Reducing potential attack vectors is crucial to building a secure system. The following components of an
IoT system must be reviewed for possible vulnerabilities:
Operating Systems
Each open port and available protocol is a poten-
tial point of attack. Code on microcontroller units
(MCUs) runs “bare metal” with no supporting operat-
ing system; each type of communication required by a
product is intentionally added by the product devel-
oper. In contrast, many SOCs and Linux systems have
multiple open ports by default, adding a vast array of
attack vectors product developers may not even be Systems built on SOCs leave more potential points of attack
than those built on MCUs.
aware of.

Applications
Applications running on devices may contain security holes. It is important to audit and sanitize these
programs to ensure a safe experience. The more programs running on a device, the larger the task of
auditing those programs for security.

Dependencies
Outside code dependencies such as libraries must be kept up to date and validated to comply with mod-
ern encryption and communication protocols. As with application security, a larger number of depen-
dencies requires more work to maintain.

Communication
All communications between the device and the cloud should be encrypted to ensure confidentiality,
integrity, and authenticity. This is critical to preventing man-in-the-middle or replay attacks against IoT
infrastructure.

January 3rd, 2017 5

Cloud
Securing a cloud or cloud servers requires minimizing the network, application, and dependency risk for
each server.

User Access and Security

Granular access controls prevent users from controlling applications or devices that aren’t theirs.
Two-factor authentication and strong password requirements prevent compromise through lax user
security.

Features and Actions

All systems require maintenance to stay ahead of evolving security risks. The following features and
actions help prevent future vulnerabilities.

Penetration Testing
Businesses can stay ahead of modern hacking techniques by repeatedly testing their systems with secu-
rity researchers and fixing potential vulnerabilities as they develop.

Firmware Application Code Reviews

Security experts can sanitize application flaws during firmware development, preventing fatal applica-
tion flaws at a customer level.

Security Update Mechanisms

Security protocols change and improve over time. Allowing for rapid firmware deployment to all devices
at once improves security.

A comprehensive IoT platform with encrypted connectivity is critical to success. In an extremely risky
landscape, it is important to pick an experienced partner to help navigate security risks. The best part-
ners openly assess the evolving security risks unique to hardware, and provide insightful recommen-
dations based on experience. Whether you choose Particle or a different IoT partner, we hope you will
follow these essential recommendations in building a safe and secure connected product.

January 3rd, 2017 6

The Particle Approach to Security
At Particle, security is a constant consideration in every decision we make. We take the security of our
cloud, our customers, and their devices and data very seriously. Every device is protected with the same
powerful encryption and best practices, from your first prototype to a high-profile product release. Al-
though no system can ever be perfectly secure, Particle is committed to be an industry leader in security
and happy to be transparent about our practices.

Particle’s platform is designed to be used at every stage of the product lifecycle, from prototyping to
production. Our state-of-the-art platform provides a secure, scalable infrastructure for IoT products, as
well as easy-to-use tools for managing your devices and the software that they run. Particle is the most
widely used Internet of Things platform, with a community of more than 100,000 companies, develop-
ers, and engineers deploying products in over 170 countries.

The platform includes important features such as:

A fully managed hosted cloud infrastructure with guaranteed service levels (SLAs)
Encryption and security applied to all communications to and from your devices
Secure and encrypted communications across cloud integrations
Easy-to-use management tools that give you full visibility into your “fleet” of devices
SIM cards and data plans for cellular-connected devices
Low-cost hardware pre-provisioned to the platform
Portability to mitigate technology lock-in risk

While some customers deploy products using the self-service tools, Particle also provides an array of
professional services to help customers develop and deploy products.
Software development and custom integrations
Support for preferred hardware architectures
Embedded software development
Design reviews
Project management and consulting services
Premium enterprise Support options

January 3rd, 2017 7

Device Protocol Security
Communications between the Particle Cloud and each Particle device are encrypted by default. Every
device ships with a unique device-specific RSA or Elliptic Curve key-pair, and has a pinned Cloud public
key. The device public key is typically pinned in the cloud during manufacturing, but can be updated lat-
er by an authorized user. Strong unique keys and bidirectional pinning help prevent man-in-the-middle
attacks against devices and data.

Particle’s TCP service uses an RSA handshake to establish a session key for a fast rotating AES-128-CBC
session. Each message is encrypted and is checked via a message id for replay attacks or out-of-order
messages. Any anomaly in the session causes it to immediately end. Although all Particle devices in-
clude hardware random number generators, the RSA/AES cloud handshake includes a cryptographically
random nonce, to ensure there is sufficient randomness on these low-power devices.

The encrypted handshake in the Particle TCP service.

January 3rd, 2017 8

Particle’s UDP service uses DTLS, a version of TLS designed for low-bandwidth and lossy UDP packets.
TLS is the new standard for secure browser traffic worldwide. Particle leverages the open source mbed
TLS library supported by ARM and used by other security conscious companies such as OpenVPN, ng-
inx, and Linksys. 256 bit ECC keys are used for the DTLS service, roughly equivalent to a 3072-bit RSA
key.

We believe that strong crypto should be based on established best practices and algorithms, and that the
use of these standards should be transparent. If a secure communications system can’t withstand public
scrutiny, then it’s not sufficiently secure. This is why we’ve open sourced our encryption protocols and
techniques. All the device communication source code is available here:

https://github.com/spark/firmware/tree/develop/communication/src

January 3rd, 2017 9

Hardware and Device Security
Maintaining a secure, authenticated connection to the Particle Cloud gives you confidence to deploy
firmware and issue commands to your devices. Secure by default, Particle devices don’t leave any incom-
ing ports open for port scanners or active side attacks. Radio connections are encrypted by industry
standard WPA2, or standard 3G / 2G radio protocols. A secure device protocol adds future proofing and
end-to-end encryption to the cloud on top of existing secure radio protocols.

The device is also protected against failures during

the Over The Air (OTA) firmware update process.
Each firmware module includes a verifiable hash
and metadata to ensure the code is appropriate for
that platform and product. If a corrupted firmware
is sent to a device, or a mismatched firmware for
that product, the device will safely fall back to the
last known good firmware stored locally in flash.
Product Creators can also pin a known version of
firmware for their products, which the cloud will
enforce, to help ensure your customers are getting
the best experience. The firmware is also split into
modules, so the speed of the update is as fast and as
low risk as possible, minimizing any interruptions In the case of a failed or corrupted OTA firmware upload, the
device will fall back on locally stored good firmware.
during an upgrade.

Additionally regardless of whether the device connects via Wi-Fi, Cellular, or other radio protocols, the
network authentication credentials are never transmitted to the cloud, and are only stored locally or on a
SIM card.

January 3rd, 2017 10

Cloud Security
Particle exercises best practices and cutting-edge cloud operations to minimize attack surface area in
both the service layer and data. The Particle Cloud uses best-in-class hosting with ISO 27001, 27017, and
27018 physical security and risk management, and Particle monitors and tests its infrastructure regular-
ly for potential vulnerabilities.

Particle reduces its attack surface area through a

variety of techniques. API-based attacks are filtered
out with a scalable traffic load balancer. The API
utilizes a 2048-bit TLS certificate and is acces-
sible only via HTTPS. It also supports the OAuth
2.0 standard for secure login for integrations, with
strongly salted and hashed passwords likely to
resist brute force attacks and compromise. Fur-
thermore, Particle intentionally limits the scope of
user-data stored in the cloud. As a matter of policy,
the Particle Cloud does not store any personally
identifiable information or data that could be used
to compromise products or customers.
Essential elements of Particle’s cloud security.
Server availability zones are housed in a secure,
firewalled private network, and each box is also strictly firewalled both within this network and from the
internet in general. Particle uses a sophisticated dev-ops system of automated deployments, containers,
and service checks to automatically ensure servers are up-to-date, and running only the expected appli-
cations. Servers are protected with a variety of automatic intrusion detection software to discourage
automated attacks. Additionally, Particle engineers routinely destroy and re-provision boxes to reduce
the risk or scope of any undetected issues or lingering old versions of libraries or other software. Human
access to these boxes is severely limited to a trusted server operations team, and that access is granted
only via a single bastion host, which is strictly monitored.

Particle services are designed from the ground-up to scale horizontally. This means that the Particle
Platform can scale infinitely to uniform machines in the face of an attack or large customer demands.
Businesses, developers, and customers depend on Particle to be available and responsive, and perfor-
mance is a crucial aspect of security. A fully instrumented and scalable Particle Cloud is also available
for private deployments when data and availability isolation are key to your IoT strategy.

Particle regularly hires professional penetration testing consultants to proactively prepare for any
emerging threat models. We also engage in an open dialogue with a large, security-conscious community
of developers and researchers. This active conversation helps us stay ahead of potential customer con-
cerns and improves the Particle Platform for all of our customers.

January 3rd, 2017 11

Physical Security
Particle ensures the physical security of our serv-
ers by using best-in-class hosting via established
and trusted hosting companies. AWS is used when
possible. Information on AWS’s best security prac-
tices can be found here:

https://aws.amazon.com/security

Trusted cloud hosting vendors protect against

physical threats such as fire, natural disasters,
power or connectivity outages, hardware failures
and more. Furthermore, the Particle Cloud utilizes
multiple geographically disparate availability zones
to protect against catastrophic data center failure.

January 3rd, 2017 12

Company Policies
At Particle we recognize that security doesn’t stop
at our APIs or services or devices. Our colleagues
and our actions as a company are part of our secu-
rity model. By being open and transparent, and by
encouraging a positive conversation with our com-
munity and our product creators, we create the best
opportunity to learn and adapt to new threats.

New employees at Particle are required to use

two-factor authentication for any service that
supports it, and their workstations must use
full-disk-encryption. New employees go through
social engineering training, and every Particle
employee must use a password management appli-
cation to generate strong, random passwords for
every account they access. When we need to share
secrets internally, they are strongly encrypted using a trusted, employee specific public RSA key, and
that message is destroyed afterwards.

We celebrate our security culture by playing security games and staying current with trends and best
practices. This creates a positive atmosphere and increases adoption of simple practices such as locking
your workstation, or not connecting an unknown / found device to a trusted network.

We encourage our community to practice ethical disclosure. This means they know they’ll be rewarded
and celebrated if they bring us new security risks first, instead of ignoring them, or keeping them secret
or selling them to another company. Every Particle employee knows to escalate anything resembling a
security bug or issue to the engineering team, and that team knows to evaluate and address that concern
as soon as possible.

January 3rd, 2017 13