Kevin Fu
UMass Amherst
Department of Computer Science
Google, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Millions of patients benefit from implantable medical devices that treat chronic ailments such as cardiac arrhythmia, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease with various combinations of electrical therapy and drug infusion. The latest devices utilize unlicensed radio communication for diagnostic and therapeutic functions --- allowing doctors to remotely monitor patients' vital signs via the Web and provide a new level of care not feasible in the old model of purely clinical checkups. However, the rapid convergence of medical devices with wireless communication and Internet connectivity gives rise to an unaddressed breed of risk to security and privacy. Such devices must now defend against intentional malfunctions caused by malevolence. For instance, Prof. Fu's team demonstrated with a software radio that an implantable defibrillator could be wirelessly tricked into inducing a fatal heart rhythm known as ventricular fibrillation. Prof. Fu will discuss the emerging problems and solutions of this area that melds medicine and computer science.
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Bio: Kevin Fu is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prof. Fu investigates how to ensure the security and privacy of pervasive devices that must withstand determined, malicious parties. To this end, Prof. Fu works on energy-aware cryptography and compiler techniques to run secure software on computational RFIDs---tiny embedded computers that operate without batteries. A computational RFID serves as a modular platform to test improvements in the security and privacy of medical devices. Prof. Fu's contributions include the security analysis of several systems ranging from contactless no-swipe credit cards and implantable cardiac defibrillators to access-controlled Web sites and automated software updates. Kevin is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, MIT Technology Review's TR35 2009 Innovator of the Year, and recipient of the NSF CAREER award. His research appears in computer science conferences, medical journals, and has been featured in media such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and various news programs. He served on numerous program committees of leading conferences in secure systems, and has given dozens of invited talks world-wide to industry, government, and academia. Prof. Fu leads the UMass Amherst Security and Privacy Research (SPQR) lab. He serves as director of the RFID Consortium on Security and Privacy (RFID-CUSP.org) and co-director of the Medical Device Security Center. Prof. Fu received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds a certificate of achievement in artisanal bread making from the French Culinary Institute and maintains an active participation in the study of Latin and the Classics. For more information, visit http://www.cs.umass.edu/~kevinfu/ |