During the introduction, we discussed Cloudflare’s approach for security for IoT devices. During the recent Android Things presentation, we noted that one of its possible advantages was operating system and application updates, enabled by the presumed Play store infrastructure, as a security measure. The Cloudflare approach uses a VPN based approach. A security certificate is deployed to the device so that all communications for the device go through the Cloudflare cloud, enabling ingress/egress filtering. This enables monitoring inbound traffic for attacks and controlling outbound traffic of compromised devices, thus possibly decreasing infection risk and mitigating infection impact.

Next we heard from keynote speaker Dr. Jensen Newman of the UT Dallas Applied Research Center (ARC) on issues to consider during electronics product development for the final product. With his experience, he noted that many issues that arise in development can be resolved by resorting to the product datasheet for the component(s). His presentation continued with suggestions for consideration in five areas:

• Breadboarding – The First Step
• Circuit Design/Schematic Capture
• PCB Design
• Final Assembly
• Design For Manufacture

The presentation included some suggested practices, part numbers, tools, and specifications. Slides are posted here.