Architectures and Security in Distributed Systems

Knowledge of computer networks.

Basic knowledge of cryptology and security goals.

Basic knowledge of operating systems including handling the Linux command line; Basic knowledge of Linux and Windows command line commands. Basic ability to write a Linux script.

Basic programming knowledge (C, Java) and the ability to learn another programming language (at least the basics) yourself (e.g. Python, Perl)

The starting point are architectures for IoT systems, which consist of small and micro devices, active and passive communication infrastructure and a complex server landscape in the background system

• Cloud computing, edge computing, fog computing
• Message-based, stream-oriented, etc. architectures (e.g. MQTT, Apache Kafka), practical application
• Communication strategies (publish / subscribe, client / server, ...) and quality of service
• Transfer protocols for networking: CoAP, REST, Web Sockets
• Always On Architectures: Partial / Incidental On
• Effects of the architectures on resources (power, throughput, costs, ...) and vice versa

Security:

The following content relates to IoT / distributed systems, even if not explicitly stated.

• IoT security architectures
• Specific security challenges / goals / requirements for IoT / distributed systems
• Specific threats to IoT / distributed systems
• Best practices for IoT security
• Norms and standards
• Cryptology and cryptological applications in the field of IoT / distributed systems
• Trust and Trusted Computing (TPM); Trusted Execution Environments TEE; Secure elements;
• Secure Boot
• Clear and secure proof of identity for products, processes and machines
• Key management in the field of IoT (including hardware-based solutions)
• Micro-segmentation

The students

• know current design patterns for software architectures of distributed systems
• can make a well-founded selection for their use
• know current threats and consider the security goals in the draft
• can implement the design patterns with the appropriate frameworks
• can implement countermeasures against current threats in practice
• know best practices in the field of IoT / distributed systems and can implement them

Lecture with exercises on the individual architectures; Lecture and case study on safety in teams of two.

Evaluation of the exercises 10%

Writen exam 90%

For a positive grade, a minimum of 50% of the possible points must be achieved in each part of the examination.

None

• Butun, Ismail (2020): Industrial IoT: Challenges, Design Principles, Applications, and Security. 1st ed. 2020 edition. Cham: Springer.
• Pal, Shantanu et al. (2020): ‘Security Requirements for the Internet of Things: A Systematic Approach.’ In: Sensors, 20 (2020), 20. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/s20205897

Face-to-face event with selected online elements