“Up until now, patching has been done only to software or “firmware,” which is how people often refer to the system code running on small devices. The underlying hardware is itself immutable. We submit that engineers must permit not just the software but also the hardware to be patchable on devices intended to become part of the Internet of Things. Why? Because it may not be possible to fix all security vulnerabilities simply by modifying the software. For example, the hardware might implement a cryptographic encryption algorithm that is secure now but could become outdated long before the end of …
