Recent Advances in Hardware-Oriented Security and Trust in IoT Systems

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer Science & Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2026 | Viewed by 300

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA
Interests: hardware security; cybersecurity; AI security and autonomous vehicle
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
Interests: hardware security; network security; cyber–physical system security

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growing capabilities of sensing, computing, and communication devices are leading to an explosion in the use of IoT devices. IoT applications follow stringent demands, such as timing and function correctness, disturbance resilience, and data integrity and confidentiality, among others. Thus, the sources of disturbance and attack surfaces are growing and becoming more diversified, while IoT systems are scaling up and becoming more heterogeneous. Due to the significant effects of security vulnerabilities and attacks, IoT system development is facing significant challenges, such as sensitive data leakage, malicious intrusions of power grid, car hijacking, etc. Further, as a type of infrastructure, hardware trustworthiness and security are of crucial significance to IoT systems. Therefore, the purpose of this Special Issue is to seek contributions that exploit hardware attacks, detect hardware-related anomalies, follow a security-oriented hardware design (or hardware and software co-design), and use automated tools in IoT systems. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following IoT security areas:

  • Side-channel and fault attack, and resilience/countermeasures;
  • Intrusion and anomaly detection;
  • CPS security;
  • Smart grid security;
  • Hardware security and privacy;
  • Formal method-based security verification, program analysis, and fuzzing;
  • Security tool development;
  • Security-oriented hardware design, or hardware and software co-design;
  • Physical unclonable functions (PUFs), random number generators, cryptographic units, and key storage technologies;
  • IoT devices and protocol security;
  • Machine learning for IoT security.

Dr. Honggang Yu
Dr. Kaichen Yang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • IoT security
  • embedded system
  • hardware security

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

45 pages, 18550 KB  
Review
Cyberworthiness for Corporate Organisations: A Structured Review of Standards, Frameworks, and Future Directions
by Saad Almarri, Wael Issa, Marwa Keshk, Benjamin Turnbull and Nour Moustafa
Electronics 2026, 15(10), 2133; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15102133 (registering DOI) - 15 May 2026
Abstract
Cyberworthiness extends the concept of cybersecurity by evaluating whether systems and networks can perform their intended functions securely while maintaining protection against cyber threats. In corporate environments, cyberworthiness aims to ensure security, operational resilience, and trustworthiness across interconnected business processes and digital infrastructures. [...] Read more.
Cyberworthiness extends the concept of cybersecurity by evaluating whether systems and networks can perform their intended functions securely while maintaining protection against cyber threats. In corporate environments, cyberworthiness aims to ensure security, operational resilience, and trustworthiness across interconnected business processes and digital infrastructures. Modern organisations increasingly rely on complex cyber–physical and information systems, where vulnerabilities in software, networks, and devices can introduce significant operational and security risks. Cyberworthiness, therefore, encompasses security controls, risk management practices, and compliance with recognised cybersecurity standards and governance frameworks. It supports the assessment of information technology components and their exposure to both known and emerging cyber attacks, enabling organisations to evaluate system robustness and operational continuity. While cyberworthiness has historical foundations in system assurance and dependability, it also provides a conceptual basis for contemporary cyber resilience strategies. This paper discusses the concept of cyberworthiness in corporate organisations and identifies potential pathways for its practical implementation. It analyses existing cybersecurity standards and governance frameworks to support structured cyberworthiness assessment. This study presents a structured comparative review of fifteen cyberworthiness-relevant standards, supported by a Source Quality Appraisal Framework, a Framework Selection Guide specifying when each standard should be preferred and where conflicts arise, and a five-dimensional Cyberworthiness Assessment Readiness Model (CARM), a directional self-assessment instrument. The Efficient Automatic Safety and Security Assurance (EASSA) concept is proposed as a direction for future research, not a validated deployed system. Ensuring cyberworthiness remains challenging due to automation limitations in all reviewed standards, evolving threat landscapes, and governance complexity, requiring organisations to adopt integrated and measurable approaches to safeguard their digital assets and operational systems. Full article
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