A Novel Cost‐Efficient Design for Electromagnetic Shielding in IoT Enclosures Against Intentional Electromagnetic Field Security Attacks

Miskeen, Guzlan, Alrweg, Mohmad, Zeinali, Mehdi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9696-6528 and Albarbar, Alhussein (2025) A Novel Cost‐Efficient Design for Electromagnetic Shielding in IoT Enclosures Against Intentional Electromagnetic Field Security Attacks. The Journal of Engineering, 2025 (1). e70079. ISSN 2051-3305

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Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become increasingly prevalent in modern life, with connected devices permeating various aspects of daily activities. However, these IoT systems are susceptible to physical‐layer attacks, wherein adversaries can exploit electromagnetic fields to compromise their security attacks. A particular concern arises from the reliance of IoT systems on the integrity of sensor signals, as these signals can be inaccurate due to manipulation by intentional electromagnetic field (IEMF) attacks. To mitigate such attacks, the implementation of effective magnetic shielding is crucial. While prior studies have recommended the use of magnetic shielding, there is a lack of research investigating its application in actively protecting IoT smart lock systems (SLSs) against tampering magnets and IEMF attacks. Increasing the thickness of shielding materials may enhance the shielding level for smart locks (SLs), but it poses challenges in terms of weight and size. Therefore, it is essential to design the shielding properly to ensure its effectiveness against both static and time‐varying magnetic field attacks. In this paper, we present a modelling approach for the magnetic shielding of a smart lock enclosure and evaluate its shielding effectiveness (SE). We developed a physical prototype of a smart lock and its protective aluminium enclosure and conducted laboratory experiments to assess the enclosure's performance against magnetic fields at various distances. The experimental data were then fed into a finite element method (FEM) numerical simulation using COMSOL to capture the impact of the distance between the SLS and the tampering magnet. The key findings demonstrate that the utilised shield can reduce the attacker's magnet power from 1/3 to 1/15 of its original IEMF field strength at the smart lock, effectively preventing it from being hacked. This shielding effectiveness was observed at distances between 5 and 25 cm, respectively. Furthermore, the paper explores the shielding effectiveness of three enclosure materials: aluminium, stainless steel and plastic. The results show that the aluminium enclosure exhibits the highest shielding effectiveness, indicating its suitability for effectively protecting smart locks against physical attacks using tampering magnets. The proposed enclosure design can serve as a practical solution to safeguard IoT SLSs against IEMF attacks, and the findings can be extended to include user notification mechanisms for IEMF attempts.