Building a Low-Cost and State-of-the-Art IoT Security Hands-On Laboratory

The popularity of IoT has raised grave security and privacy concerns. The huge IoT botnets Mirai and Reaper were built on compromised IoT devices. In this paper, we propose to develop a low-cost platform with an industrial grade microcontroller (MCU) ESP32 equipped with a crypto co-processor ATECC608A and create teaching materials including labs and case studies for IoT security education. MCUs have broad applications in IoT. Sensor nodes in various smart systems such as smart home, smart health and smart grid can use MCUs to process commands and perform automatic control. We will develop effective, engaging and novel teaching materials on IoT hardware security, operating system/firmware/software security, network security, and data security with the low-cost IoT kit and IDE. The teaching materials will contribute to the Cybersecurity Workforce Development Initiative led by NICE and help respond to a dynamic and rapidly developing array of cyber threats including those resulting from IoT.