Risks and Benefits of Side-Channels in Battlefields

As networked devices and applications make their way into our battlefields, their behaviors need to take into account these highly adversarial cyber-physical environments. On the dark side of the spectrum, undesired side-channels put our sensitive data at risk; hence, side-channel-protected devices and implementations should be promoted. On the bright side of the spectrum, side-channel analysis may be correlated with observed and hidden events, and enable causality inference and watermarking. This paper describes some unique risks and benefits that may be obtained from side-channel analyses in battlefields.