From the course: Threat Modeling: Tampering in Depth

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Whose screw? Physical tampering matters

Whose screw? Physical tampering matters

From the course: Threat Modeling: Tampering in Depth

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Whose screw? Physical tampering matters

- [Instructor] When we deal with computers that look like old fashioned computers, we usually accept the risk that someone can tamper with it. We either treat it as out of scope if we make operating systems, or we address it with cages and locks if we're in a data center. And when the computer is in someone's pocket, on their door or outside, we realize that we need different approaches. For example, an iPhone won't boot if you tamper with its security critical parts, including the home button with its fingerprint reader. Other computers, like security cameras, have various levels of tamper resistance balanced carefully with cost to manufacture or ship and so the tamper resistance is often limited to an oddly shaped screwhead. Other computers or things of the Internet of things are in our houses. There we assume that our walls somehow block the wireless signals to prevent tampering and other network attacks. And we…

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