Papers
1
Total Citations
9
H-Index
1
About
Smita Naval’s research lies at the critical intersection of mobile security, sensor-based privacy threats, and cyber-physical systems. Her most-cited work, “PIN Inference Attack: A Threat to Mobile Security and Smartphone-Controlled Robots” (2021, 9 citations), exposes how the proliferation of sensor-rich smartphones—including those used to control robots—creates new vulnerabilities. She demonstrates that onboard motion sensors, such as magnetometers, can be exploited to infer sensitive user inputs like PINs, turning everyday devices into surveillance tools. This contribution is significant for highlighting the dual-use risk of high-processor smartphones acting as “software robots” that track user activities. Naval’s research is foundational for understanding side-channel attacks in mobile and robotic contexts, and her findings have implications for designing more secure sensor access controls. Her work is particularly relevant for students and researchers exploring the security of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and human-robot interaction systems, where the convergence of mobility and autonomy introduces novel attack surfaces.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1