Elisabeth Oswald facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Elisabeth Oswald
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|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Alma mater | Graz University of Technology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cryptography |
| Thesis | On Side-Channel Attacks and the Application of Algorithmic Countermeasures (2003) |
| Doctoral advisor | Reinhard Posch |
Maria Elisabeth Oswald is an expert from Austria who works in cryptography. Cryptography is the science of keeping information secret and secure. She is well-known for her work on special kinds of attacks called side-channel attacks. These attacks look at things like how much power a computer uses to figure out its secrets. She also helps create secure computer systems that can stop these attacks.
Since 2019, she has been a professor at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria. She also holds an honorary position at the University of Bristol in the UK. In 2023, she started a new professorial role at the University of Birmingham.
Education and Career
Early Life and Studies
Elisabeth Oswald grew up in Wolfsberg, Carinthia, a town in Austria. She went to the Graz University of Technology to study mathematics and how computers process information.
In 2003, she earned her Ph.D. (a high-level university degree) from Graz University of Technology. Her special research project was about side-channel attacks and how to protect computer systems from them. Her advisor for this work was Reinhard Posch.
Working as a Professor
In 2006, Elisabeth Oswald began working at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. She started as a lecturer, which is like a teacher at a university. Later, she became a full professor there, focusing on applied cryptography. This means she worked on making cryptography useful in real-world situations.
In 2019, she moved back to Austria to work at the University of Klagenfurt. She even joked that she was a "Brexit refugee," referring to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Even after moving, she kept a special connection with the University of Bristol as an Honorary Professor. This means she still has a link to the university, even if she doesn't work there full-time anymore.
More recently, in 2023, Professor Oswald took on another important role. She became a professor at the University of Birmingham, which is also in the United Kingdom.
Book
Elisabeth Oswald has also written a book with two other experts, Stefan Mangard and Thomas Popp. The book is called Power Analysis Attacks: Revealing the Secrets of Smartcards. It was published in 2007.
This book helps explain how power analysis attacks work. It also shows how these attacks can reveal secret information from smartcards. Smartcards are like the small computer chips you find in bank cards or phone SIM cards. The book teaches people how to protect these devices from such attacks.
