Indian American professor Yuvraj Agarwal represented the Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Cylab Security and Privacy Institute’s meeting with government officials and technology industry leaders, as the White House launched its new Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity label. 

Agarwal shared key findings from CyLab’s five-plus years of IoT security and privacy label research. IoT technology has provided ease and other benefits to consumers by helping automate routine tasks however, incidents of security and privacy breaches are on the rise and concerns about data being sold or shared with third parties are on the uptick. Since 2018, CyLab faculty and students have advocated for IoT labels to resolve these issues. The labelling system empowers consumers by providing the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision on the internet, including purchases. 

Agarwal had also presented at a White House meeting previously in 2022. The professor had shared a briefing on CMU’s IoT label, offering a consumer-tested solution that could be immediately implemented across the IoT industry. Agarwal and Cranor have served on a working group tasked with moving the IoT labelling initiative forward and meeting with several organizations, including industry associations, to share their research on the topic. 

Agarwal immigrated to the U.S. from India in 2001 after completing his Bachelor of Engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University. Aside from being a professor at CMU, Agarwal is the director of SynergyLabs. His lab focuses on research at the intersection of hardware and software systems. He has a PhD in computer engineering from the University of California at San Diego. Before that, he pursued a Master of Science in Information and Computer Science at the University of California Irvine.