Security and Privacy Research Lab

Congratulations to Gennie Gebhart for winning this year’s Information School 2016 Capstone Presentations Research Award! Among all the iSchool capstone projects, Gennie’s research on security, privacy, and censorship received this highest recognition. Congratulations Gennie!

As part of his PhD Dissertation, lab alumnus Miro Enev studied whether a computer attached to a car’s internal computer network could “fingerprint” (identify) the driver. Wired got excited about the work and interviewed Miro. See the resulting article here. A conference version of the upcoming paper, co-authored with lab member Alex Takakuwa, alumnus Karl Koscher, and faculty member Yoshi Kohno will appear at PETS 2016. Great job team!

Congratulations to UW CSE Security Lab member Lucy Simko! Lucy received one of this year’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program supports outstanding student researchers pursuing Masters and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics who demonstrate the potential to have a significant impact in their fields. Nearly 17,000 students applied for a total of 2,000 fellowships awarded nationwide. Receiving an NSF Fellowship is a huge honor. Congratulations Lucy!

UW CSE Security Lab alumnus Karl Koscher was an invited panelist today at the RSA conference, in San Francisco. Karl participated in a panel entitled “Do We Need Cyber-Ratings for the Auto Industry?” Karl drew on his deep expertise in automotive security. In 2010 and 2011 he, along with other UW and UCSD co-authors, published two of the first papers analyzing the computer security properties of modern automobiles. That work led to significant impact in both industry and governemnt, was covered in two NOVA TV episodes, and was featured on 60 Minutes.

Security Lab member Kiron Lebeck gave a great talk today at HotMobile 2016! The talk was about his work on computer security for future augmented reality systems, with Profs. Franzi Roesner and Yoshi Kohno. The paper is online here. The talk really was great — everyone was leaning back and watching the talk, vs working on their computers 🙂 . Great job Kiron!

UW CSE Security Lab member Camille Cobb was invited to present to the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) Aspirations Award winners this past weekend. The award ceremony was held at Google Kirkland, with roughly 20 young women award recipients present. Camille surveyed the broad field of computer security, and also offered a focused discussion of her work on computer security for developing world applications. Thank you Camille!

This year USENIX introduced a new conference: the Enigma. Some think that Enigma is destined to be one of the hottest new security conferences out there. This year USENIX invited Security Lab co-director Yoshi Kohno to speak about his work on security and privacy for the Internet of Things. Check out his talk, which will be online here.

Since 2013, the UW CSE Security Lab has helped lead the charge in tackling an emerging challenge: computer security for augmented reality devices. Today, the lab launched a new website focused on its augmented reality efforts. Readers can now track the lab’s efforts on augmented reality and security here: http://ar-sec.cs.washington.edu/. Lab member Kiron Lebeck will present his latest research results on augmented reality security, with professors Franzi Roesner and Yoshi Kohno, at HotMobile 2016.

Last night UW CSE Security Lab co-director Prof. Franzi Roesner presented to a crowded auditorium at Roosevelt High School, in Seattle. Roosevelt High School hosts a once-a-month “Science and Society” evening enrichment program for high school students and their parents. The goal of the lecture series is to get students thinking about the role of science, engineering, and technology in their own lives, be informed citizens, and get some ideas about STEM career paths. Franzi’s talk, entitled “The invisible trail: Pervasive tracking in a connected age,” covered her research on web privacy and web tracking.

The Security Lab innertube water basketball team clinches a win for its first game of the season. The team benefited from an intense coaching session in advance of the game, thanks to the experience of seasoned innertube water basketball player and team captain Prof. Franzi Roesner. Also present for the first game were lab members and friends Camille Cobb, Yoshi Kohno, Kiron Lebeck, Lucy Simko, Alex Takakuwa, Paul Vines, and Ruthie Vines.