The world is full of small batteryless devices. And they don’t mind their own business.
That solar-powered sensor by the window? Great at harvesting light — and maybe leaking your occupancy habits at the same time. Water sensors meant to save the day? A hacker could trick them into reporting leaks that never happened, or worse, silence them entirely. Even wildfire detectors, designed to alert us at the first sign of danger, can be taken offline by a determined cybercriminal. These devices might not stay powered long enough to get security updates, and enforcing privacy rules can take more energy than they’ve got.
Batteryless devices may be convenient. But they may also be just one glitch away from betrayal.
Ozgur Ozmen is here to protect us.
Ozmen is an assistant professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He studies the systems used to protect the myriad of increasingly common batteryless devices that can be found in homes and offices.
“It’s critical for privacy and safety that we protect these devices,” he says. “Batteryless devices are in widespread use in hospitals, factories and industrial settings. If hackers gain access to them, it creates vulnerabilities in those environments.”
Ozmen is also a researcher in the Secure, Trusted, and Assured Microelectronics Center, or STAM Center, a consortium of six laboratories at ASU working to prepare students for challenging careers in securing microelectronics.
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