Maria Elisabeth Oswald is an Austrian cryptographer known for her work on

side-channel attack In computer security, a side-channel attack is a type of security exploit that leverages information inadvertently leaked by a system—such as timing, power consumption, or electromagnetic or acoustic emissions—to gain unauthorized access to ...

s including

power analysis Power analysis is a form of side channel attack in which the attacker studies the power consumption of a cryptographic hardware device. These attacks rely on basic physical properties of the device: semiconductor devices are governed by the l ...

and on implementations of cryptosystems that are resistant to these attacks. She is a professor at the

University of Klagenfurt The University of Klagenfurt ( or ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'', AAU) is a federal Austrian research university and the largest research and higher education institution in the States of Austria, state of Carinthia. It has its campus in ...

Education and career

Oswald is originally from

Wolfsberg, Carinthia Wolfsberg () is a List of cities and towns in Austria, town in Carinthia (state), Carinthia, Austria, the capital of Wolfsberg District. Geography The town is situated within the Lavanttal Alps, west of the Koralpe range in the valley of the Lav ...

. She studied mathematics and information processing at the

Graz University of Technology Graz University of Technology (, short TU Graz) is a public research university located in Styria, Austria. It was founded in 1811 by Archduke John of Austria and is the oldest science and technology research and educational institute in Austria. ...

, completing her Ph.D. there in 2003 with the dissertation ''On Side-Channel Attacks and the Application of Algorithmic Countermeasures'' supervised by . She started working at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

in 2006 as a lecturer, and later became Professor in Applied Cryptography there. She moved to Klagenfurt in 2019, describing herself as a "

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

refugee". She continues to be affiliated with the University of Bristol as an Honorary Professor. Since 2023 she has taken up a professorial position at the University of Birmingham.

Book

With Stefan Mangard and Thomas Popp, Oswald is a coauthor of the book ''Power Analysis Attacks: Revealing the Secrets of Smartcards'' (Springer, 2007).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, Elisabeth Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Austrian cryptographers Austrian women computer scientists Modern cryptographers Graz University of Technology alumni Academics of the University of Birmingham Academics of the University of Bristol Academic staff of the University of Klagenfurt Graz University of Technology