How Will Smart Dust Impact Cybersecurity?

Smart dust is small, technologically advanced and invisible to the naked eye. Will it become a staple in the cybersecurity industry? Or will cybercriminals use it to launch even more sophisticated cyberattacks?

What Is Smart Dust?

Smart dust is a group of wireless, microscopic Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Each of these autonomous microelectromechanical nodes — meaning miniature machines that use both electrical and mechanical components — is roughly as large as a single grain of sand. This technology’s small size essentially makes it invisible to the human eye.

A single collection of smart dust can contain hundreds, thousands, millions, or even billions of internet-connected nodes. Each has hardware that enables it to collect and send sensor data like motion, light, sound, pressure, or temperature.

Although this technology seems far-fetched and futuristic, it has already been designed, invented, and tested. The concept first appeared in the early 2000s, and the first smart-dust-like device was implanted in a mammal’s body in the 2010s. In the decade or so since then, researchers and engineers have been refining millimeter-sized IoT devices.

The popularity of IoT is part of why this technology has advanced so quickly. While there are already over 10 billion active IoT devices worldwide, experts project there will be more than 25.4 billion by 2030. By some estimates, even more will exist by then. This field's research and development translates into positive smart dust development.

How Does Smart Dust Work?

Smart dust is relatively new, so there’s no widely accepted standard design yet. However, the microelectromechanical nodes often have built-in circuitry, computing, and sensing components to collect and transfer data. They may communicate via an internet connection, radiofrequency transceivers, or Bluetooth.

Since the world’s smallest solid-state drive is 14.6 x 28 x 8 millimeters — far bigger than a single cubic millimeter — there’s no way for smart dust to store the information it collects on-device. Instead, it has to send its data packets to a local remote receiver or a remote cloud storage system.

These nodes can get their power through microscopic batteries. For example, one startup powers its nanocomputer with a proprietary zinc battery that lasts around five weeks per charge. Advanced systems use energy harvesting techniques — they recharge via solar cells, wind, or thermoelectric energy as they navigate their environment.

Since smart dust is so small, it can’t be assembled on a line by hand. Instead, specialized manufacturers must use microfabrication or three-dimensional printing techniques. Surprisingly, production is still relatively affordable. Building a bunch of millimeter-sized IoT devices doesn’t use up many resources, so it’s cost-effective.

Does Smart Dust Pose Any Cybersecurity Risks?

Developing smart dust may be an advanced technical feat, but that doesn’t mean the technology is safe from common cybersecurity risks. There were more than 112 million IoT cyberattacks in 2022 — up from 32 million four years prior — underscoring how vulnerable a network of thousands of internet-connected sensors could be.

Data privacy is the first major cybersecurity concern. Naturally, people won’t know if personally identifiable information (PII) like their names, addresses, or birth dates are being collected if they can’t see the technology recording it. The sub-millimeter size of smart dust poses a serious concern where sensitive or confidential information is involved.

Unintended behavior is another potential cybersecurity risk. Like any hardware, these sensors can glitch. However, since they’re microscopic, autonomous, and part of a large group, their dysfunction will likely go unnoticed for an extended period. In the meantime, they could skew readings, compromise other nodes, or create a security weakness.

Depending on what companies use smart dust for, skewed readings could be a serious cybersecurity concern. For example, they could embed those sensors in critical equipment to monitor for changes that indicate a cyberattack. In this situation, incorrect information could cause them to overlook obvious signs of tampering, making them vulnerable.

How Cybersecurity Teams Can Use This Technology

There are a few ways cybersecurity professionals can use smart dust to their advantage.

1. Generate Data-Driven Insights

Collecting, processing, and storing data locally is faster than operating remotely and sending everything to the cloud. Even though the difference is only a few milliseconds, that seemingly insignificant figure quickly adds up when multiplied by a few thousand sensors.

2. Secure Data Collection and Storage

Edge computing moves processing and storage to the network’s boundary, where everything occurs on a device or local servers. This technique is popular — experts predict enterprises will spend $250 billion on it in 2025 — because it reduces latency significantly.

Thousands of internet-connected nodes take up a lot of bandwidth and can slow a network down. However, deploying them at the edge streamlines data capture, processing, analysis, and storage, speeding up cybersecurity teams’ day-to-day operations.

3. Become More Resilient to Attacks

Each sensor in a collection of smart dust acts independently. This means a large percentage can malfunction, be hacked, or break, and the rest will continue functioning normally. A decentralized system is more resilient to cyberattacks and tampering.

How Cybercriminals Can Use This Technology

Unfortunately, hackers can use smart dust just as easily as cybersecurity professionals.

1. Gain Intel to Launch Cyberattacks

Since smart dust is invisible to the naked eye, cybercriminals can use it to gain intel on their targets to make launching a cyberattack easier. They could use sound, image, motion, or proximity sensors to capture passwords, occupancy levels, or login details.

2. Give DDoS Attacks an Advantage

A distributed denial-of-service attack overwhelms a system with traffic, causing it to slow or crash. The average attack lasted over 50 hours in 2022. This is up from just 30 minutes in 2021, largely because of botnets — a group of IoT devices that attackers use to strengthen cyberattacks.

Hackers can rope smart dust sensors into their botnet, giving them an advantage over cybersecurity teams. Unfortunately, IoT technology often has more vulnerabilities than the average device — its constant internet connection makes it easier to find and target.

3. Set up Targeted Phishing Campaigns

Hackers can use smart dust to follow a high-profile individual like a senior-level executive or cybersecurity team leader. This way, they can gain an unnerving amount of PII, enabling them to launch a highly targeted phishing campaign.

Should Cybersecurity Teams Start Preparing?

Although it may be years until smart dust becomes a staple in the cybersecurity industry — and in dark web hacking groups — professionals should prepare for the worst-case scenarios early. This way, they ensure they’ll be ready when the time comes.