CV

Contact Information

32 West Street Apt. 3N
Cold Spring, NY 10516

+1 (917) 744-7934
tomb@cryptocracy.net
https://cryptocracy.net

Research Interests

Computer security and privacy, implantable medical devices, embedded security, biometrics

Education

2008 – 2010

ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Doctoral Research (ABD)
Thesis topic: Security and Privacy of Embedded Devices

2004 – 2007

University of Massachusetts Amherst
M.S. in Computer Science
Thesis topic: Cloning resistant anonymous credentials

2003 – 2004

Columbia University
Continuing education in computer science

1996 – 2000

Yale University
B.S. In Computer Science

Awards

2008 IEEE Security and Privacy Best Paper Award for: ​ Pacemakers and
Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators: Software Radio Attacks and Zero-Power
Defenses

Peer Reviewed Publications [BibTeX]

 

Towards Practical Identification of HF RFID Devices

Boris Danev (ETH Zurich), Srdjan Capkun (ETH Zurich), Ramya Jayaram Masti (ETH Zurich), Thomas S. Benjamin (Cryptocracy LLC)

ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC), 2012

Preliminary Thoughts on Privacy Supporting Binding of Biometrics to Credentials

Jan Camenisch (IBM Research), Thomas Gross (IBM Research), Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (IBM Research)

Hot Topics in Privacy Enhancing Technology (HotPETs 2010)
2010, Berlin, Germany

Proximity-based Access Control for Implantable Medical Devices [PDF]

Kasper Bonne Rasmussen (ETH Zurich), Claude Castelluccia (INRIA), Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (ETH Zurich) and Srdjan Capkun (ETH Zurich)

ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2009
Chicago, USA

Accountable Privacy Supporting Services [PDF]

Jan Camenisch (IBM Research), Thomas Gross (IBM Research), Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (IBM Research)

Journal of Identity in the Information Society, 2009, Springer

Physical-layer Identification of RFID Devices [PDF]

Boris Danev (ETH Zurich), Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (IBM Research), Srdjan Capkun (ETH Zurich)

Usenix Security 2009
San Diego, USA

Rethinking Accountable Privacy Supporting Services [PDF]

Jan Camenisch (IBM Research), Thomas Gross (IBM Research), Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (IBM Research)

ACM Digital Identity Management
2008, Fairfax, VA, USA

Pacemakers and Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators: Software Radio Attacks and Zero-Power Defenses [PDF]

Daniel Halperin (University of Washington), Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (UMASS Amherst), Benjamin Ransford (UMASS Amherst), Shane S. Clark (UMASS Amherst), Benessa Defend (UMASS Amherst), Will Morgan (UMASS Amherst), Kevin Fu (UMASS Amherst), Tadayoshi Kohno (University of Washington), and William H. Maisel M.D. (BIDMC and Harvard Medical School)

Winner: Best Paper Award
IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland)2008, Oakland, CA, USA

Security and Privacy for Implantable Medical Devices [PDF]

Daniel Halperin (University of Washington), Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (UMASS Amherst), Kevin Fu (UMASS Amherst), Tadayoshi Kohno (University of Washington), William H. Maisel M.D. (BIDMC and Harvard Medical School)

IEEE Pervasive Computing 2008, IEEE

Vulnerabilities in First-Generation RFID-enabled Credit Cards [PDF]

Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (UMASS Amherst), Daniel V. Bailey (RSA Labs), Kevin Fu (UMASS Amherst), Ari Juels (RSA Labs), and Tom O’Hare (Innealta)

Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2007 Scarborough, Trinidad/Tobago

Nonesuch: A Mix Network with Sender Unobservability [PDF]

Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (UMASS Amherst), Andrei Serjantov (The Freehaven Project), and Benessa Defend (UMASS Amherst)

Workshop for Privacy in Electronic Society 2006 Alexandria, VA, USA

Privacy for Public Transit [PDF]

Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (UMASS Amherst), Hee-Jin Chae (UMASS Amherst), Benessa Defend (UMASS Amherst), and Kevin Fu (UMASS Amherst)

Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2006 Cambridge University, England

Technical papers and patents

Efficient Tight Interval Proofs with Camenisch-Gross Encoding.

Camenisch J, Gross T, Heydt-Benjamin TS

IBM Research Report RZ3800, IBM Research Division, Zurich, Switzerland.2011

Cryptographic Proofs In Data Processing Systems

Camenisch J, Gross T, Heydt-Benjamin TS

US Patent No: US8527777B2
Grant Date: 2013-09-03

Cryptographic Encoding and Decoding of Secret Data

Camenisch J, Gross T, Heydt-Benjamin TS

US Patent No: US8744077B2
Grant Date: 2014-06-03

Cryptographic Protocols of the Identity Mixer Library

Patrik Bichsel, Carl Binding, Jan Camenisch, Thomas Groß, Tom Heydt-Benjamin, Dieter Sommer, and Greg Zaverucha

IBM Research Report RZ3730, IBM Research Division, Zurich Switzerland, March 2009.

RFID Payment Card Vulnerabilities

Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin, Daniel V. Bailey, Kevin Fu, Ari Juels, and Tom O’Hare

UMASS Amherst Technical Report, 2

Professional Experience

Perspecta Labs (formerly Applied Communication Sciences), Senior Research Scientist

2017 – Present

Cryptocracy LLC, Member

2016 – 2017

TPIPR, CTO

2013 – 2016

Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, VP Technology

2012 – 2013

Cryptocracy LLC, Member

2011 – 2012

The Tor Project, Research Scientist

2010 – 2011

ETH Zurich (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Research Assistant

2008 – 2010

IBM Research Zurich
Pre-doctoral researcher for the Cryptography and Security group

2008 – 2009

IBM Research Zurich
Intern for the Cryptography and Security group

2007

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Research Assistant

2004 – 2007

Columbia University
Research Assistant

2003 – 2004

Riverdale Country School
Teacher, Administrative staff member

2000 – 2004

Panels and Invited Talks

Personal and Professional Privacy

EuroDIG, Geneva, Switzerland, Sept 2009

Invited talk: Wireless Security and Physical Layer Identification

KU Leuven, Belgium, Feb 2009

Invited talk: The world goes wireless: A paradigm shift still not fully realized

RWTH Aachen, Germany, Feb 2009

Invited talk: Anonymous Credentials in Electronic ID

Advanced Applications for Electronic Identity Cards (ADAPID) Leuven, Belgium, July 2008

Invited talk: Privacy Supporting Identity Systems – Theory Meets Practice

The International Conference on Java Technology (Jazoon) Zurich, Switzerland, June 2008

Invited talk: Privacy and Identity Management

Secure Vehicular Communications EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, Feb 2008

Panel: Ethics in Privacy Research
Thomas S. Heydt-Benjamin (Proposer and Moderator), Panelists: Caspar Bowden, George Danezis (co-proposer), Steven Murdoch, Andreas Pfitzmann, Gene Tsudik

Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium Ottawa, CA, 2007

Program Committee Memberships

Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium

2008 – 2012

Workshop for Privacy in Electronic Society (An ACM CCS Affiliated Workshop)

2006, 2007, 2010

Security and Privacy in Medical and Home-Care Systems (An ACM CCS Affiliated Workshop)

2009, 2010

Hot Topics in Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PC co-chair)

2008, 2009


University Committees and Service

Academic Standards and Curriculum Committee of the Graduate School

2004 – 2006

UMASS Graduate Council: the advisory and oversight committee of the graduate school.

2004 – 2006

Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Student Information Systems

2004 – 2006

UMASS Graduate Student Senate; elected representative of the computer science department

2004 – 2006

Yale University Departmental Student Advisory Committee; elected representative

1999 – 2000

Selected Media Coverage

Interview on “dark net” and anonymity technology

Telemundo PR October 22, 2015

Interview on credit card security

Fox News September 29, 2015

“Good-Guy Hacker Rides into Town”

Putnam County News and Recorder December 21 2011

“A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks”

The New York Times, March 12, 2008

“Heart-Device Hacking Risks Seen”

The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2008

Guest on National Public Radio’s Leonard Lopate show to discuss privacy for public transportation

March 9, 2007

“Security researcher shows just how easy it is to steal personal data from RFID-bearing credit cards”

Live interview on Fox news, December 2006

“’Smart’ cards are quick, but are they safe?”

NBC’s Today Show, October 26, 2006

“No-Swipe Credit Cards Could Make ID Theft Easier”

ABC’s Good Morning America, October 24, 2006

“Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards”

The New York Times, October 23, 2006

 Popular Science and Public Service

Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner’s office:
RFID and electronic driver’s license related subjects.

2008

Consumer Reports: advice on and explanation of RFID related subjects.

2008

Selected Teaching and Advising

GSoC Google Mentor: “Blocking-resistant Transport Evaluation Framework”, Student Brandon Wiley

2011

Honors diploma thesis advisor: Timur Alperovich and Shane Clark
Topic: embedded device security and privacy.

2007

Research mentor: Russel Silva
Topic: embedded device security and privacy.

2006

Teaching Associate (Instructor) cs197c: The C++ Programming Language

2005

Teaching Assistant cs445: Information Systems

2005

Teaching Associate (Instructor): The Unix Programming Environment

2005

 Invited Peer Review

IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing

2008, 2009, 2011

Journal of Computer Security

2010, 2011

Computers & Security

2011

Communications of the ACM (CACM)

2010

Database and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA)

2010

IEEE International Conference on Information, Communications and Signal Processing (ICICS)

2009

IEEE INFOCOM

2006, 2009, 2010

International Conference on Networked Sensing Systems (INSS)

2009

IEEE SECON

2009

Journal of Computer Science

2008

ACM Transactions on Information and System Security (TISSEC)

2008

IEEE Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS)

2008

IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland)

2006 – 2008

Financial Cryptography and Data Security

2008

IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing

2008

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

2007

Network and Distributed System Security Symposium

2006 – 2007

ACM Communications and Computer Security (CCS)

2007

Workshop on RFID Security (RFIDsec)

2007

International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security

2007

IFIP SEC

2007

Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies

2005

Memberships

Mensa, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), ARRL – AA2TB