Contact Information
32 West Street Apt. 3N
Cold Spring, NY 10516
+1 (917) 744-7934
tomb@cryptocracy.net
https://cryptocracy.net
Research Interests
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
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
EuroDIG, Geneva, Switzerland, Sept 2009
KU Leuven, Belgium, Feb 2009
RWTH Aachen, Germany, Feb 2009
Advanced Applications for Electronic Identity Cards (ADAPID) Leuven, Belgium, July 2008
The International Conference on Java Technology (Jazoon) Zurich, Switzerland, June 2008
Secure Vehicular Communications EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, Feb 2008
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