Finish up conclusion

This commit is contained in:
jaseg 2026-01-20 17:17:17 +01:00
parent 82247241ed
commit c486c8e603

View file

@ -252,31 +252,27 @@ choices resulting from conflicting constraints and lack of awareness. In Chapter
results of a survey across approximately 30 real world tamper sensing mesh implementations, analyzing common design
features.
The latter half of our survey in Chapter~\ref{chapter-survey} answers our second research question. From our analysis of
this large corpus of devices, we deduce a list of design criteria that can be applied to increase the security of any
tamper sensing mesh implementation.
To answer our third research question, in Chapter~\ref{chapter-ihsm} we propose the Inertial Hardware Security Module
(IHSM), a new type of HSM that extends the high level of protection offered by the modern cryptographic software stack
down to the hardware level, enabling secure computation in insecure places. IHSMs can be built from basic, off-the-shelf
components and do not require bespoke manufacturing processes.
To answer our fourth research question, in Chapter~\ref{chapter_sampling_mesh_mon} we propose improvements to the state
of the art in HSM tamper sensors based on the use of low-cost, embeddable Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR). Our
improvements can be applied to both IHSMs and conventional HSMs.
IHSMs come with unique power supply constraints since their rotating mesh must be continuously powered. A
straightforward solution utilizes Wireless Power Transfer using planar inductors, but existing WPT designs exhbit a
ripple voltage due to an asymmetry of conventional planar inductors. This leads to our fifth research question, which
we solve in Chapter~\ref{chapter-nice-coils} with the design and experimental evaluation of a new, generalized class of
\emph{twisted} planar inductors that reduces voltage ripple in rotating shaft setups.
Finally, we answer our last research question by showing in two case studies how an end-to-end design of an IHSM-secured
data processing system could look like. Both case studies concern scenarios that IHSMs unlock that were previously
infeasible using conventional HSMs: In Chapter~\ref{chapter-qkd}, we explore how IHSMs enable long-range Quantum Key
Distribution (QKD) networks using trustable physically secured relay nodes and in Chapter~\ref{chapter-smpc} we
elaborate how datacenter-scale Secure Multiparty Computation (SMPC) clusters can be created using IHSM enclosures with
commercial server hardware.
The second half of our survey in Chapter~\ref{chapter-survey} answers our second research question. From our analysis of
a large corpus of devices, we deduce a list of design criteria that can be applied to increase the security of any
tamper sensing mesh implementation. To answer our third research question, in Chapter~\ref{chapter-ihsm} we propose the
Inertial Hardware Security Module (IHSM), a new type of HSM that extends the high level of protection offered by the
modern cryptographic software stack down to the hardware level, enabling secure computation in insecure places. IHSMs
can be built from basic, off-the-shelf components and do not require bespoke manufacturing processes. To answer our
fourth research question, in Chapter~\ref{chapter_sampling_mesh_mon} we propose improvements to the state of the art in
HSM tamper sensors based on the use of low-cost, embeddable Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR). Our improvements can be
applied to both IHSMs and to conventional HSMs. IHSMs come with unique power supply constraints since their rotating
mesh must be continuously powered. A straightforward solution utilizes Wireless Power Transfer using planar inductors,
but existing WPT designs exhbit a ripple voltage due to an asymmetry of conventional planar inductors. This leads to our
fifth research question, which we solve in Chapter~\ref{chapter-nice-coils} with the design and experimental evaluation
of a new, generalized class of \emph{twisted} planar inductors that reduces voltage ripple in rotating shaft setups.
A finding of independent interest is that compared to conventional two-layer planar inductors, in our experiments our
proposed inductor design improved self-resonant frequency by up to \qty{50}{\percent} and increased inductance by up to
\qty{6.5}{\percent}. Finally, we answer our last research question by showing in two case studies how an end-to-end
design of an IHSM-secured data processing system could look like. Both case studies concern scenarios that IHSMs unlock
that were previously infeasible using conventional HSMs: In Chapter~\ref{chapter-qkd}, we explore how IHSMs enable
long-range Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) networks using trustable physically secured relay nodes and in
Chapter~\ref{chapter-smpc} we elaborate how datacenter-scale Secure Multiparty Computation (SMPC) clusters can be
created using IHSM enclosures with commercial server hardware.
\section{Contributions}