\chaptertitle{Conclusion}

In this thesis, we proposed Inertial Hardware Security Modules (IHSMs), a completely new approach to physical security
that combines conventional tamper-sensing meshes with physical movement to bootstrap a highly secure system from
low-security, off-the-shelf parts. To motivate our research, we showed on the German national digital health record
system how hardware security is hard to achieve in practice. Besides some minor cryptographic oddities, our analysis
revealed at least one essential specification mistake that negates the hardware security of the system by unnecessarily
introducing a poorly protected HSM. In the following chapters, we first introduced IHSM technology, then provided deep
analyses of two of its engineering challenges, mesh monitoring and power transfer. We propose a low-cost TDR-based mesh
monitoring system that exceeds the capabilities of all previous systems from academic or from patent literature by
monitoring large meshes while simultaneously providing detailed results. Our TDR-based mesh monitoring system is of
independent interest, since it can also be integrated into traditional HSM designs. Besides improved mesh monitoring, we
also proposed a new, generalized design for high-frequency PCB inductors with low parasitic capacitance. Our design
provides better bandwidth and lower parasitic capacitance compared to the state of the art without increasing
implementation cost. We concluded our thesis with two chapters elaborating on two new use cases that are made possible
by IHSM technology due to its ability to protect large payloads that have high power consumption.

We believe that with the research presented in this thesis, we substantially advanced the physical security field. In
particular, we belive that by publishing our research including its artifacts under open-source licenses, we provide the
basis for future research in tamper-sensing technology, a field that remains under-served in today's academic landscape.

Recent history has shown that state-level adversaries are a mounting threat to civil rights organizations, human rights
lawyers, members of minorities, and many others. While western democracies used to be considered safe havens of human
rights, today human rights are under attack both from within and from the outside in countries across the globe.
Publishing IHSM technology as open source, we hope to provide one building block for new computing systems accessible to
all that are resilient and secure in the face of growing adversity.

