Embedded systems are dedicated computing systems built into devices or machinery to perform specific functions. Unlike general-purpose computers, they often have limited memory, fixed hardware, and long service lives, which makes them common in industrial controls, medical devices, vehicles, routers, and other critical equipment.
In cyber security, embedded systems matter because they can be hard to patch, recompile, or replace once deployed. That creates a long-lived attack surface: if firmware has a flaw, attackers may exploit exposed services, weak authentication, outdated libraries, or insecure update paths. Defenders focus on secure boot, signed firmware, segmentation, asset inventory, and monitoring for unusual behavior. In practice, runtime protections and software assurance tools are often used to reduce exploitability when immediate fixes are not possible.