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Michigan Daily: May 31, 2023
Researchers at UMich find a way to reduce the energy consumed by AI
The Michigan Daily discusses Zeus, an open-source framework designed in the lab of Mosharaf Chowdhury to analyze and optimize the energy efficiency of training AIStudy explores drug use in programming jobs, tension between policy and reality
The first qualitative study on the use of psychoactive substances while on the job at software companies revealed a range of motivations, company policies, and workplace stigmas.Barzan Mozafari receives the EuroSys Test-of-Time award
Prof. Mozafari has been recognized for the sustained impact of BlinkDB, the first massively parallel approximate query engine.MLive.com: May 12, 2023
Security concerns raised over internet voting for Michigan military spouses
Prof. J. Alex Halderman is quoted regarding security concerns related to Michigan’s proposed new system for allowing electronic ballot return for deployed military members.Alfred P. Sloan Foundation blog: April 20, 2023
Meet the brains behind the world’s first fully remote global censorship observatory
Sloan Research Fellow and Morris Wellman Faculty Development Professor Roya Ensafi has been profiled on the Sloan Foundation’s blog for her work in combatting internet censorship and surveillance.Optimization could cut the carbon footprint of AI training by up to 75%
Deep learning models that power giants like TikTok and Amazon, as well as tools like ChatGPT, could save energy without new hardware or infrastructure.Reethika Ramesh awarded Rackham Barbour Scholarship
The scholarship will support her work on studying the security and privacy of networks.Wired: March 21, 2023
I Got Investigated by the Secret Service. Here’s How to Not Be Me
Prof. Roya Ensafi is quoted in this piece on Wired about the role of ISPs in government surveillance, and how useful technologies like VPNs are in safeguarding privacy.Fan Lai earns Towner Prize for Outstanding PhD Research
The award recognizes creative and outstanding research achievements.Ram Sundara Raman earns Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship
The fellowship will help support his work to study global Internet censorship.Reethika Ramesh awarded Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement
The award recognizes active participation in research, leadership, and academic performance.Seven CSE faculty earn NSF CAREER Awards
The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education.Cyrus Omar earns NSF CAREER to design live program sketching environments
Omar aims to bridge the gap between a program sketch and a finished program for novices and experts alike.Xinyu Wang earns NSF CAREER Award to democratize web automation
The AI-based programming assistant will enable users to describe a repetitive task and generate a program to help them automate it.Paul Grubbs earns NSF CAREER Award to build more secure, private networks
His cryptographic techniques will help managed networks like those in schools and companies enforce network policies without the need to access user information.Roya Ensafi selected for Sloan Research Fellowship
Sloan Research Fellowships recognize distinguished performance and unique potential to make substantial research contributions.Roya Ensafi receives NSF CAREER Award for efforts to combat censorship worldwide
Her goal is to advance the scientific understanding of contemporary online censorship and develop principled and effective countermeasures.Are VPNs really the answer?
New research shows that a VPN can be one tool in an internet user’s toolbox but often is not sufficient as the only solution for all privacy needs.Consumer Reports Digital Lab: January 20, 2023
Learning How U.S. Consumers Perceive and Use VPNs
Prof. Roya Ensafi and Consumer Reports Security Planner Yael Grauer authored this piece on attitudes of U.S.-based users toward VPNs, and the widespread misconceptions of how they work.Roya Ensafi named Morris Wellman Professor
Ensafi’s research focuses on Internet security and privacy, with the goal of creating techniques and systems to better protect users online.The Washington Post: December 13, 2022
Advocates seek federal investigation of multistate effort to copy voting software
The Washington Post references Prof. J. Alex Halderman’s security assessment of Georgia’s ballot marking devices in an article about recent efforts to copy sensitive voting software in several states.Tool to analyze the security, privacy of VPNs wins first place for applied security research in 2022
VPNalyzer has revealed a number of shortcomings in the design and implementation of popular virtual private networks. The paper earned first prize at New York University’s CSAW ’22 Applied Research Competition.Researchers cut down on AI’s carbon footprint with new optimization framework
Zeus automatically adapts the power usage of deep learning models to chase clean electricity sources throughout the dayMLive.com: November 22, 2022
‘Data-rich, resource-poor.’ Why Michigan schools can be a ‘soft target’ for ransomware attacks
Prof. Paul Grubbs discusses the ins and outs of ransomware attacks, which recently targeted South Redford School District in Michigan.Cyber vulnerability in networks used by spacecraft, aircraft and energy generation systems
A new attack discovered by the University of Michigan and NASA exploits a trusted network technology to create unexpected and potentially catastrophic behavior2022 CSE Graduate Student Honors Competition highlights outstanding research
The competition recognizes top research done by PhD students at CSE.Cutting down on database maintenance with automated tools
With the help of formal methods, Prof. Xinyu Wang is working to make the evolution of databases and its surrounding code less labor intensive and costly during schema changes.The Washington Post: November 10, 2022
Nearly every election-denying secretary of state candidate lost
In this summary article, Prof. J. Alex Halderman is quoted regarding people’s expectations around voting machines.The New Yorker: November 8, 2022
Will Election Deniers Again Try to Access Voting Systems?
There’s no evidence that votes have been tampered with, but a case in Georgia suggests a particular potential vulnerability. Prof. J. Alex Halderman discusses the issue with The New Yorker.Expert: 4 ways Americans can keep their vote secure and accurate
With election security experts waylaid by years debunking false claims of election fraud, little has improved since 2020.The New Yorker: October 25, 2022
The Vulnerabilities of our Voting Machines, and How to Secure Them
The security of voting remains a huge topic of concern. Prof. J. Alex Halderman talks with The New Yorker Radio Hour about his experience analyzing American voting machines and where the risks stand today.Prof. Kang G. Shin receives DoD grant to investigate security of semi-autonomous systems
Prof. Shin plans to identify potential attack surfaces and security/safety issues while developing defense mechanisms against attacks on semi-autonomous systems.The same app can pose a bigger security and privacy threat depending on the country where you download it, study finds
Same app, same app store, different risks if you download it in, say, Tunisia rather than in Germany.ASU Full Circle: October 17, 2022
Are virtual private networks actually private?
A joint project with Prof. Roya Ensafi and Arizona State University works to protect internet freedom and digital security by revealing vulnerabilities in VPN technology.CSE undergrads finish first, third in ACM MICRO research competition
The student researchers studied how to simulate massive datacenter application data and how to improve datacenter efficiency with payload awareness.System to avoid data center inefficiencies earns Best Paper
Called Whisper, the technique mitigates mispredictions in application control flow via efficient profiling.Ars Technica: September 28, 2022
Apps can pose bigger security, privacy threat based on where you download them
According to a study led by PhD student Renuka Kumar, the same app can pose different different risks if you download it in, say, Tunisia rather than in Germany.Politico: September 12, 2022
‘Absolutely terrifying prospect’: How the midterms could weaken U.S. election security
Prof. J. Alex Halderman discusses the prospect of voting system audits opening key states open to attacks and hackers in Politico.Prof. Xinyu Wang collaborates with UiPath to democratize automation
The two will collaborate on building new programming techniques that are accessible to non-experts and non-programmers.Paul Grubbs earns Meta award to study interoperability in end-to-end encrypted messaging
Grubbs was one of ten awardees selected as part of the Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Award program.More secure networks with the power of zero knowledge
Paul Grubbs aims to resolve the tension between network policy enforcement and user privacy with a cryptographic technique that can prove something is true without explaining why.UiPath Blog: August 17, 2022
Democratizing Automation: UiPath and University of Michigan Join Efforts
Prof. Xinyu Wang has a goal of building fundamental intelligent programming techniques that are useful in practice, and is supported by UiPath as he works toward his vision of democratizing automation so that more and more people around the world can automate their tedious tasks.The Washington Post: August 17, 2022
GOP operatives’ troubling trend of copying election systems
GOP operatives have made efforts to copy sensitive voting information in a number of states, including in Michigan. Computer security experts have noted that this creates new security risks. This data would often include “object code,” or the language that allows machines to understand the underlying source code, said Prof. J. Alex Halderman, which is mostly straightforward to reverse-engineer.Research on key VPN vulnerabilities recognized with USENIX Internet Defense Prize, Best Paper Award
The study authored by Prof. Roya Ensafi’s lab found that network administrators, like ISPs and governments, could easily detect and block the use of VPNs on a large scale.Researchers earn USENIX Test of Time for work in exposing network key vulnerabilities
The award recognizes “Mining Your Ps and Qs” for its lasting contributions to the field of security and encryption.Work on debunking 2020 election fraud claims in Antrim County incident recognized with USENIX Best Paper
The paper presents an independent investigation of the county’s election management system and identifies weaknesses, solutions.H.V. Jagadish named Edgar F. Codd Distinguished University Professor of EECS
Professor Jagadish is being recognized for his work as one of the nation’s most visible and influential researchers in the interdisciplinary field of data scienceThe New York Times: July 20, 2022
How ‘Stop the Steal’ Captured the American Right
Prof. J. Alex Halderman is quoted in the New York Times Magazine regarding the balance between credible election security threats and misinformation.Open source platform enables research on privacy-preserving machine learning
Virtual assortment of user devices provides a realistic training environment for distributed machine learning, protects privacy by learning where data lives.CSE researchers present five papers at ISCA 2022
17 U-M researchers proposed a variety of techniques to speed up complex graph algorithms, encrypted cloud computing, memory-intensive matrix operations, and more.The Washington Post: June 3, 2022
No evidence of exploitation of Dominion voting machine flaws, CISA finds
The federal government has found no evidence that flaws in Dominion voting machines have ever been exploited, including in the 2020 election. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s five-page advisory is based in part on an analysis and report by Prof. J. Alex HaldermanThree CSE grad students recognized by NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
This program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students.Kang G. Shin recognized with Distinguished Leadership Award by IEEE Computer Society Technical & Conference Activities Board
His work in the area of real-time computing has spanned decades and has had impact in a broad range of applications.Roya Ensafi selected as finalist for ACUM Outstanding Advisor Award
Ensafi received a number of student nominations for the award.System enables automated repair in hardware designs
The new framework lets developers cut down on time spent designing bug fixes for hardware specifications, adapting techniques now used widely in software development.Frontline: March 30, 2022
Plot to Overturn the Election
A new PBS Frontline documentary on 2020 election misinformation features commentary by Prof. J. Alex Halderman, election security expert and author of a major report on purported 2020 election fraud in one Michigan county.Tanvir Ahmed Khan awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship
The fellowship will advance his work to improve the efficiency of modern data center processors with optimizations that lie at the intersection of compilers, operating systems, and computer architecture.CSE alum Akshitha Sriraman receives ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award
Sriraman’s dissertation explores how to bridge computer architecture and software systems to tackle new challenges posed by massive web services.A first step toward more agile hardware design, debugging
A new suite of tools takes advantage of modern reconfigurable devices to enable developers to better address bugs in hardware after it’s been deployed.Ian Neal awarded Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement
The award recognizes active participation in research, leadership, and academic performance.The Washington Post: February 22, 2022
New legislation could bring mobile voting to the District
Prof. J. Alex Halderman says that standards for voting should be higher – “it’s phenomenally retrograde to consider Internet voting in the present moment.”The Washington Post: February 21, 2022
New legislation could bring mobile voting to the District
New proposed legislation could bring mobile voting to Washington DC. Prof. J. Alex Halderman comments on why we may not be ready for this.Manos Kapritsos earns CoE teaching excellence award
Students widely praise Kapritsos’ approach to teaching, and commitment to keeping classes engaging.ABC News: February 14, 2022
Feds oppose immediate release of voting machine report
A federal cybersecurity agency is reviewing a report under seal by Prof. J. Alex Halderman that indicates security vulnerabilities exist in voting machines used by Georgia and other states. Halderman has advocated to make his findings public in a limited and responsible way so that problems could be addressed.The Washington Post: February 2, 2022
Are voting machines too vulnerable to hacking? Georgia’s having that debate
Prof. J. Alex Halderman found multiple vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to install malicious software and undermine elections in a special report on Georgia’s voting machines.How worried should we be about the rise in hospital ransomware attacks? A Q&A with Kevin Fu
“We’ve reached an inflection point where the degree of connectivity between devices and services in all sectors has exploded.”Z. Morley Mao elected IEEE fellow for contributions to performance and security of internet routing and mobile systems
Prof. Mao and her students have played an important role in understanding the efficiency, security, and performance of a number of mobile systems.Study finds new opportunities, challenges to broadening CS education
While past research focuses on introductory CS courses, the researchers found another key point of potential bias in the CS curriculum.Multi-institute project “Treehouse” aims to enable sustainable cloud computing
“We are buying thousands of GPUs and running them at full speed, and no one really knows just how much energy is being spent in the process.”Undergraduate researcher wins first place at the ACM Student Research Competition
Song devised a new type of Branch Target Buffer replacement mechanism to tackle the gap between ideal and practical performance.The New Yorker: December 21, 2021
The Catch-22 of Addressing Election Security
Prof. J. Alex Halderman comments on election security vulnerabilities versus current threats to the democratic process in this article that asks the question: How do politicians contend with the weaknesses in the voting system without fueling baseless claims of election fraud?Politico: December 16, 2021
Keeping hackers out of our medical devices
As the FDA’s resident expert in medical device security, Prof. Kevin Fu oversees efforts to fortify devices that can be compromised or exploited during a security breach. He spoke with Politico about his efforts.Baris Kasikci named Morris Wellman Professor
Kasikci’s research is centered around developing techniques, tools, and environments that help developers build more reliable, secure, and efficient software.Gizmodo: December 9, 2021
A New Report on VPNs Shows They’re Often a Mixed Bag for Privacy
Consumer Reports recently reviewed a variety of virtual private networks with the help of VPNalyzer, a tool developed in Prof. Roya Ensafi’s lab.Tool to analyze VPN security, privacy aids in Consumer Reports review
VPNalyzer was used by Consumer Reports to measure the effectiveness of popular consumer VPN providers.Enabling efficient, globally distributed machine learning
A group of researchers at U-M is working on the full big data stack for training machine learning models on millions of devices worldwide.Tools for “more humane coding”
The Future Programming Lab envisions a more seamless coding experience.Exploring faster ways to think like a software developer
Beginner and expert programmers think about code very differently while they program, an insight that can inform more tailored training.Outstanding research recognized at Graduate Honors Competition
Five finalists from each CSE lab presented their work at the event’s final round.Science Friday: November 4, 2021
Could Ordinary Household Objects Be Used To Spy On You?
How the physics of sound helped test the possibilities of indirect surveillance. Prof. Kevin Fu explores the risks & opportunities of side-channel surveillance tech in Science Friday.The Economist: October 22, 2021
Governments are finding new ways to squash free expression online
Work by Prof. Roya Ensafi and the Censored Planet Lab has helped to identify the use of new censorship technology in Russia.New York Times: October 22, 2021
Russia Is Censoring the Internet, With Coercion and Black Boxes
Work by Prof. Roya Ensafi and the Censored Planet Lab was cited in a New York Times report on the growing use of new censorship technology in RussiaFamous Paxos distributed protocol automatically determined safe and secure
Two researchers have debunked the common assumption that the famous Paxos consensus protocol is too complex to be proven safe without hours of manual labor.CSE authors present six papers at MICRO 2021
12 co-authors had work accepted at the conference, including one Best Paper nominee.Westley Weimer earns U-M Faculty Recognition Award
Weimer is renowned for his work on automatic bug detection and repair, his lively and clear lectures, and his commitment to building a better culture in CSE.Yuval Moskovitch named 2021 EECS Rising Star
Moskovitch’s research focuses on data management for fairness and responsible data science.New tool to analyze, improve live streaming services earns best paper
The study produced a new tool to analyze and correct performance issues in major streaming software and services.Newsweek: September 27, 2021
Election Security Problems Still Must Be Addressed | Opinion
Prof. J. Alex Halderman co-authored an op-ed for Newsweek on how disinformation is inhibiting legitimate and necessary election security reforms.Google Award for preventing Spectre, Rowhammer in the cloud
Kevin Loughlin’s project tackles an issue called context isolation on shared computing resources.ABC News: September 8, 2021
Experts call for rigorous audit to protect California recall
Work by Prof. J. Alex Halderman was cited by a group of election security experts calling on California’s top election official to take an additional step to protect the upcoming gubernatorial recall.New York Times: September 2, 2021
G.O.P. Election Reviews Create a New Kind of Security Threat
Election security experts, such as Prof. J. Alex Halderman, are concerned about the security risks that are being introduced as non-election officials are granted broad access to voting equipment.The Washington Post: August 27, 2021
Experts: False claims on voting machines obscure real flaws
In an interview with the Washington Post, Prof. J. Alex Halderman reminds readers that real security flaws in voting systems do exist – even if they’ve been obscured by false claims.Google Award to make widely used software testing technique more effective
Baris Kasikci plans to improve software fuzzers by learning how deployed software is most commonly run by users.Best paper award for simplifying data transformation
The researchers proposed a set of formal tools to make statistical data transformation easier to document and understand.Four papers with Michigan authors at SIGCOMM 2021
ACM SIGCOMM’s annual conference is the leading conference in data communications and networking in the world.Michigan News: August 9, 2021
Computer security personnel need tools, training to assist survivors of intimate partner violence
Customer support personnel at computer security companies are not sufficiently prepared to handle cases involving intimate partner violence. U-M PhD students Yixin Zou and Allison McDonald and Prof. Florian Schaub examined where training falls short in helping IPV survivors and what can be done to address the deficits.Get to know: Paul Grubbs
His research at the intersection of cryptography and systems has already had broad impacts across the IT industry.Wired: August 6, 2021
Hacker lexicon: what is a side channel attack?
Computers constantly give off more information than you might realize—which hackers can use to pry out their secrets. Prof. Dan Genkin gives perspective to Wired.Yatin Manerkar recognized with dissertation award honorable mention
Manerkar’s dissertation is recognized for demonstrating the potential for progressive correctness verification across all stages of architecture design.Four CSE co-authored papers presented at PLDI 2021
The papers define new ways to reconstruct program failures, program with live graphical elements, and extract information from webpages.Her fight for your rights
Could censorship end the internet as we know it? Not if Roya Ensafi can help it.
U-M researchers present three papers at ISCA 2021
Fourteen researchers presented work on accelerating genome sequence alignment, fast multi-GPU systems, and more reliable data center caches.
Baris Kasikci awarded Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship
The award highlights Kasikci as an emerging leader in the design of efficient and trustworthy computer systems.
Newsweek: June 9, 2021
Trump Says More Countries Should Ban Twitter: ‘Perhaps I Should Have Done It While I Was President’
In this article, Prof. Roya Ensafi comments on how the June 2018 repeal of net neutrality in the U.S. has set the stage for potentially blocking websites nationwide.Baris Kasikci earns VMWare Early Career Grant
The grant recognizes recently appointed faculty whose research interests and accomplishments seem poised to have significant impact within the industry and academia.
Bloomberg: May 5, 2021
Putin Finds Ally in China’s TikTok in Crackdown on Critics
Russia is now pioneering a “landmark” approach to censorship that relies on both pressuring platforms to police their own content and an innovative use of technology to ensure they comply, according to Roya Ensafi, the founder of the Censored Planet lab.Marina Minkin chosen for Facebook Fellowship
Marina’s research in security closely investigates the boundary between software and hardware.
Human resilience study to benefit from new data privacy technique
Prof. Mosharaf Chowdhury is leading development of a new machine learning application that will protect the privacy of participants.
Election lessons from Michigan
Election security expert J. Alex Halderman dissects Antrim County’s election debacle to help future contests go more smoothly.
The University Record: April 8, 2021
Academics: Russia deployed new technology to throttle Twitter’s traffic
The Censored Planet project, from the lab of Prof. Roya Ensafi, published a study explaining some of the details about the slowdown of Twitter in Russia.Detroit News: April 2, 2021
Michigan expert debunks infamous report on Antrim County election as ‘meaningless’
A report released by Prof. J. Alex Halderman says the much-discussed December 2020 report by supporters of Donald Trump on election results in Antrim County “contains an extraordinary number of false, inaccurate or unsubstantiated statements.”Traverse City Record Eagle: March 31, 2021
U of Mich. computer science prof: no fraud in Antrim Co. 2020 election
A 54-page report authored by Prof. J. Alex Halderman who analyzed Antrim County’s 2020 election results, found initial mistakes were the result of human error and that certified results of the presidential contest were accurate.Harsha Madhyastha awarded for innovative, outstanding teaching
Madhyastha has focused on making undergraduate upper level courses reflect the changing needs of industry.
Manos Kapritsos earns CAREER Award to apply formal reasoning to software performance
This project is part of Kapritsos’ larger goal of bringing formal verification to developers and other practitioners.
U-Michigan professor appointed to FDA medical device security post
A Q&A with Kevin Fu, who will help protect software that saves lives at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
Kevin Fu fills new leadership position at FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, overseeing medical device security
The longtime advocate and leading researcher in medical device security heads to Washington for a one-year term.
Hacking reality
Microphones that “hear” light; microprocessors that “tell” us secrets; self-driving cars that “see” fake objects; sensors that “feel” the wrong temperature. Our devices are under attack in new, increasingly sophisticated ways. Security researchers at CSE are exploring the limits of hardware and finding new, sobering vulnerabilities in our computers and homes.
Building a testing-free future
How automated guarantees that our most complex programs are secure and trustworthy can save us time, money, and anxiety.
Mosharaf Chowdhury named Morris Wellman Professor
Chowdhury is an expert in network-informed data systems design for big data and AI applications.
After five years, Let’s Encrypt, a non-profit based on tech developed at Michigan, has helped to secure the internet
Today, over 225 million websites are protected by free certificates issued by Let’s Encrypt.
Major side-channel discovery wins NSA contest
The winning paper broke open a new area of investigation in hardware-based data leaks.
National Security Agency Central Security Service: November 30, 2020
Winner of NSA’s 8th Annual Best Scientific Cybersecurity Research Paper Competition
The National Security Agency’s Research Directorate selected “Spectre Attacks: Exploiting Speculative Execution” as the winner of its 8th Annual Best Cybersecurity Research Paper competition. Prof. Daniel Genkin is one of the authors.2020 CSE Graduate Student Honors Competition highlights outstanding research
The competition recognizes the research done by PhD students at CSE and the final competition is the culmination of a process that narrows a field of entrants to a handful of finalists.
Tool to automate popular security technique earns distinguished paper
The new technique automatically constructs policies for applications that keep them from compromising other programs.
Censored Planet: Tracking internet censorship without on-the-ground participation
Censored Planet is releasing technical details for other researchers and for activists.
Jason Flinn honored with 2020 Mark Weiser Award
The award, named for a U-M alum, is a preeminent honor in the field of operating systems.
Bridge Michigan: November 10, 2020
Human error, Dominion voting equipment fuel false fraud claims in Michigan
“It was ultimately a human error.” J. Alex Halderman discusses claims of voting irregularities in the state of Michigan.National Public Radio: November 4, 2020
Leading Cybersecurity Expert Applauds Michigan Election Security Measures
“Good election results take time,” says Alex Halderman, co-chair of the Michigan Election Security Advisory Commission.Politico: November 4, 2020
How Election Tech Could Create a Recount Nightmare
Most election-tech equipment is the intellectual property of the companies that make it — meaning a contested election could get even more complicated according to experts including J. Alex Halderman.Bridge Michigan: November 2, 2020
Michigan elections vulnerable to hacks but not as much as others, report says
Michigan’s Election Security Advisory Commission, co-chaired by J. Alex Halderman, released a report on Thursday detailing a host of potential problems on Election Day, including cyberattacks from foreign states, software problems and power outages.Detroit News: October 30, 2020
How secure are Michigan elections? Quietly released report shines light
While exerts tout the security of Michigan’s elections, multiple reforms crafted by an advisory commission have not yet been fully implemented.PBS News Hour: October 28, 2020
Will Georgia’s new voting machines solve election problems — or make them worse?
Prof. J. Alex Halderman participates in a conversion about whether the latest voting technology being used in Georgia provides a stronger defense against meddling than the traditional paper ballot.CSE researchers report over $11M in research grants last quarter
The awards were distributed to 18 different primary investigators.
Financial Times: October 13, 2020
US blocks Hong Kong users from some government websites
Sites hosting economic data have been inaccessible to users in the Asian financial centre for months, according to work by Prof. Roya Ensafi and her Censored Planet team.5 ways Americans can keep their vote secure and accurate
Expert advice for voting in an unprecedented election.
Prof. Baris Kasikci recognized as rising star by Intel
The award recognizes early career faculty who show great promise in developing future computing technologies.
Associated Press: October 8, 2020
With time short, judge mulls Georgia voting system changes
After a glitch in Georgia’s voting machines, voting integrity activists including J. Alex Halderman made a request to sideline the state’s new touchscreen voting machines in favor of hand-marked paper ballots for the November general election.Detroit News: September 30, 2020
Lawyers spar over Georgia voting machine glitch, planned fix
Georgia election officials say they’re implementing a software change to fix a glitch in the state’s new voting machines. But election integrity activists, including Prof. J. Alex Halderman, say the state is downplaying the problem and putting the security of the upcoming election at risk.Roya Ensafi named inaugural Consumer Reports Digital Lab Fellow
The new fellowship program was designed to study the effects of connected products and services.
University of Michigan: September 23, 2020
COVID-19 app built at U-M helps businesses stay open
A COVID-19 symptom checklist web app developed by students in classes taught by Profs. Sugih Jamin and Elliot Soloway is helping more than 2,500 Michigan employers meet state requirements to screen employees before they enter the workplace each day.How a COVID-19 app built at U-Michigan is helping businesses stay open
New real-time employer dashboards provide “live-feed of data” as employees report their symptoms while also safeguarding users’ data privacy.
HOUR Detroit: September 15, 2020
Is Your Vote Secure in Michigan? Cybersecurity Expert Alex Halderman is Cautiously Optimistic
The notoriously pessimistic University of Michigan computer security expert says there’s a lot of positive things happening in the stateCSE researchers help organize 10th anniversary workshop on internet freedom
Prof. Roya Ensafi and PhD candidate Reethika Ramesh led organizing efforts for USENIX’s Tenth Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet.
The New Yorker: September 1, 2020
Who Gets to Vote in Florida?
“If the Russians had pulled the trigger, there would have been utter chaos on Election Day.” Prof. J. Alex Halderman talks election security in The New Yorker.Public Radio International: August 26, 2020
Relying on electronic voting machines puts us at risk, security expert says
How do we make elections secure? Try paper. Professor J. Alex Halderman, a security expert at the University of Michigan, explains why.$1.8M DARPA project aims to protect cars, trucks and spacecraft from hackers
Ironpatch could head off growing danger of security vulnerabilities in vehicle systems.
TechCrunch: August 6, 2020
Censys, a search engine for internet devices, raises $15.5M Series A
Censys, co-founded by Prof. J. Alex Halderman, completed a round of Series A funding for $15.5M. The company will use the funding to fuel their growth in revolutionizing Attack Surface Management.“Hiding” network latency for fast memory in data centers
A new system called Leap earned a Best Paper award at USENIX ATC ‘20 for producing remote memory access speed on par with local machines over data center networks.
Baris Kasikci earns CAREER Award to automatically improve software quality with data from everyday program use
Kasikci will sift through the byproducts of hundreds of millions of common program executions to determine how this data can automate some key steps in bug finding and fixing.
New collaboration promises greater innovation in medical device security
The two organizations will connect their membership and partner networks to work on advancing security for life-saving devices.
Enabling fairer data clusters for machine learning
Their findings reduce average job completion time by up to 95% when the system load is high, while treating every job fairly.
The Washington Post: July 15, 2020
The Cybersecurity 202: DNC’s email voting plan limits hacking risk but can’t eliminate it
“What’s at stake here is the legitimacy of the [voting] process and for that reason security is still very important.” Prof. J. Alex Halderman talks to the Washington Post.BBC: July 10, 2020
Voting amidst a pandemic
J. Alex Halderman, professor of computer science at the University of Michigan explains why e-voting systems are so risky when it comes to election security.Bloomberg: July 9, 2020
Delayed Election Results Could Test Social Media Companies as Never Before
The immediate gratification American voters have enjoyed for decades will likely come to an end in 2020. That’s the diagnosis of experts and academics like Prof. J. Alex Halderman.Jason Flinn earns Test of Time award for 1999 invention of adaptable battery use in mobile apps
The approaches to energy adaptation he proposed are now commonplace, and the applications he analyzed (web browsers, voice recognition, video players, and maps) are still ubiquitous.
Hunger and COVID: Fighting pandemic-related food insecurity in Detroit
Public policy and engineering team up to improve food access.
Students lead the way on State of Michigan web application to help curb the spread of COVID-19
“I don’t think any of us expected a global pandemic at the end of our senior year, let alone being able to work on an application that helps address it.”
Wired: June 22, 2020
Hacker Lexicon: What Is a Side Channel Attack?
Prof. Daniel Genkin helps to explain why side channel attacks continue to happen in this article. Genkin has been involved in identifying a number of flaws that have been vulnerable to side channel attacks, enabling attacks such as the Meltdown, Spectre, RAMBleed, and Foreshadow attacks.National Public Radio: June 18, 2020
Delaware Quietly Fielded An Online Voting System, But Now Is Backing Away
Delaware briefly deployed a controversial internet voting system recently but scrapped it amid concerns about security and public confidence, comments from Prof. J. Alex Halderman.New method ensures complex programs are bug-free without testing
The system targets software that runs using concurrent execution, a widespread method for boosting performance, and proves whether a program will output what it’s supposed to.
The Washington Post: June 11, 2020
The Cybersecurity 202: Georgia’s primary debacle should sound alarm bells for November
“The wide-scale problems in Georgia are exactly what experts have been fearing.” Prof. J. Alex Halderman raises alarm about November elections based on the experience in Georgia’s primary.New remote voting risks and solutions identified
The upcoming presidential election in the middle of a pandemic has jurisdictions exploring new technologies. They’re not secure.
OneZero: June 9, 2020
Online Voting System Used in Florida and Elsewhere Has Severe Security Flaws, Researchers Find
Significant problems with Democracy Live’s OmniBallot internet voting program could result in doctored ballots as voters gear up for election season in the era of Covid-19The Washington Post: June 9, 2020
The Cybersecurity 202: DARPA wants hackers to try to crack its new generation of super-secure hardware
Prof. J. Alex Halderman offered recommendations for how election officials can use online voting platform OmniBallot’s technology while mitigating risk.New York Times: June 9, 2020
Amid Pandemic and Upheaval, New Cyberthreats to the Presidential Election
Fear of the coronavirus is speeding up efforts to allow voting from home, but some of them pose security risks. A new study by Prof. J. Alex Halderman identifies risks to election integrity and voter privacy on the OmniBallot platform, currently in use for the Delaware primaries and in other parts of the country.Web app, dashboard from U-M to inform Michiganders’ return to work
The web tools will help state officials identify potential hotspots as they reopen Michigan to business.
IEEE security conference features six accepted papers from CSE researchers
The projects impact voting systems, physical sensors, integrated circuit fabrication, and multiple microarchitectural side-channel vulnerabilities.
Get to know: Xinyu Wang
“My research has the potential to democratize programming and make it possible for millions of people around the globe to automate otherwise tedious tasks using programming.”
Westley Weimer voted 2020 HKN Professor of the Year in CSE
Weimer is well known as a passionate educator, and for going the extra mile to engage with and advocate for students.
Forbes: April 16, 2020
HBO Documentary Shows The Value Of Cybersecurity In Election Security
J. Alex Halderman examines the threats associated with electronic voting machines.Research team takes on food insecurity in Detroit in the face of coronavirus limitations
Researchers are working with the city on two key initiatives to address food availability for elderly and low-income populations.
Building better coronavirus databases with automatic quality checks
The team will build high-quality datasets to enable automatic quality checking and fraud detection of the new coronavirus data.
Nine CSE graduate students recognized by NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The nine students represent a broad range of research areas in the department.
Undergraduate research on speeding up data centers earns ACM first prize
The student’s project targets critical moments where the next instruction in a program is only available in a slower type of memory.
Analytical model predicts exactly how much a piece of hardware will speed up data centers
The analytical model, called Accelerometer, can be applied in the early stages of an accelerator’s design to predict its effectiveness before ever being installed.
Bloomberg: April 1, 2020
Cybersecurity Experts Say Hacking Risk Is High for Mobile Voting
J. Alex Halderman talks with Bloomberg about mobile voting systems, saying they’re still prone to tampering and manipulation.Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for design of robust, reliable and repairable software systems
Subarno Banerjee uses program analysis to improve software systems’ safety and security.
Predoctoral Fellowship for mathematically provable hardware design
Goel designs algorithms that can automatically demonstrate the correctness of hardware systems.
Researchers to use brain scans to understand gender bias in software development
The team will use fMRI to identify some of the underlying processes that occur when a code reviewer weighs in on a piece of software and its author.
Programming around Moore’s Law with automatic code translation
Most programs in use today have to be completely rewritten at a very low level to reap the benefits of hardware acceleration. This system demonstrates how to make that translation automatic.
Big data, small footprint
How changing the rules of computing could lighten Big Data’s impact on the internet.
Autonomous vehicles can be fooled to ‘see’ nonexistent obstacles
Vehicles that perceive obstacles that aren’t really there could cause traffic accidents.
Five papers by CSE researchers presented at NSDI
The teams designed systems for faster and more efficient distributed and large-scale computing.Real-time monitor tracks the growing use of network filters for censorship
The team says their framework can scalably and semi-automatically monitor the use of filtering technologies for censorship at global scale.
Gizmodo: February 6, 2020
Buggy Iowa Caucus App Is Buggy, Security Experts Say
“It’s total amateur hour,” Prof. J. Alex Halderman says of a vulnerable app used in the Iowa Caucuses.
The Washington Post: February 6, 2020
Here’s why NSA rushed to expose a dangerous computer bug
Hackers could have used vulnerabilities in the IowaReporterApp to intercept or even change passwords, vote totals, and other sensitive information, with commentary from Prof. J. Alex Halderman.
Bloomberg: February 4, 2020
How Multiple System Failures Produced Debacle in Iowa Caucus
Prof. J. Alex Halderman spoke about how the spectacle in the Iowa Caucuses should serve as a cautionary tale about electronic and internet voting.
Halderman honored for public engagement efforts
The U-M presidential award honors individuals who provide sustained, dedicated, and influential leadership and service in major national or state capacities.The New York Times: February 3, 2020
App Used to Tabulate Votes Is Said to Have Been Inadequately Tested
Prof. J. Alex Halderman provides commentary on the vulnerabilities of app used in the Iowa Caucuses.
National Public Radio: January 30, 2020
Puerto Rico’s Internet Voting Plan Threatens Election Security: ACLU
Puerto Ricans could be casting their ballots online only in the next eight years, and Prof. J. Alex Halderman provides criticism.
$1M grant to develop U-M high-capacity research network
The team will develop a secure, data-intensive network solution to effectively transport extremely high volumes of research data on and off campus.
Facebook Fellowship for improving high-demand web services
Akshitha Sriraman works to enable hyperscale computing on high-demand web services.
Wired: January 27, 2020
Intel Is Patching the Patch for the Patch for Its ‘Zombieload’ Flaw
A research team from Michigan and University of Adelaide has identified a new microarchitectural attack that is capable of bypassing the buffer overwrite countermeasures in INtel’s flagship processors.The New York Times: January 13, 2020
‘Chaos Is the Point’: Russian Hackers and Trolls Grow Stealthier in 2020
While American election defenses have improved since 2016, many of the vulnerabilities exploited four years ago remain. Comments by Prof. J. Alex Halderman.
Politico: January 10, 2020
Research undercuts arguments from ballot-marking device advocates
Ballot-marking devices are still vulnerable to hacks, according to a study from EECS-CSE professor Alex Halderman.
The Washington Post: January 9, 2020
Voting machines touted as secure option are actually vulnerable to hacking
EECS-CSE professor Alex Halderman’s latest study shows that hybrid voting machines are still vulnerable to hacks.Bloomberg: January 9, 2020
Voters fail mock election, exposing vulnerability to hackers
The latest study from EECS-CSE professor Alex Halderman shows vulnerabilities in ballot-marking devices.Not enough voters detecting ballot errors and potential hacks, study finds
Researchers carried out the first study on voter behavior with electronic assistive devices, found 93% missed incorrect ballots.
SmarterEveryDay: January 6, 2020
Breaking Into a Smart Home With A Laser – Smarter Every Day 229
Graduate student Ben Cyr demonstrates how his lab was able to hack into smart speakers with a laser.
CRA recognizes three outstanding undergraduate researchers
The three students were given Honorable Mentions for their interdisciplinary projects.
Three faculty earn MIDAS grants to broaden the frontiers of data science
This round of funding strongly encourages pioneering work with the potential for major expansion.
Danai Koutra named Morris Wellman Professor
Koutra specializes in advancing network methods to speed up a variety of big data applications.
CSE faculty funded for three precision health projects
The CSE faculty include Prof. David Fouhey, Prof. Danai Koutra, Prof. Rada Mihalcea, and Research Scientist Veronica Perez-Rosas.
Best Student Paper Award for work on faster network classification for machine learning
Comparing graphs the team’s tool is up to an order of magnitude faster than competitive baselines.
Michigan Daily: November 22, 2019
‘U’ researchers find way to hack into virtual assistants with lasers
Researchers including Profs. Kevin Fu and Daniel Genkin were able to take control of virtual assistants using only light.New student tool gets chips from lab to fab faster than ever
The open-source system cuts a key step in chip testing down from days or weeks to a couple hours, on average.
Bloomberg: November 14, 2019
Expensive, Glitchy Voting Machines Expose 2020 Hacking Risks
Paper ballots may be safer and cheaper, but local officials swoon at digital equipment. Remarks from J. Alex Halderman.
Researchers design new solution to widespread side-channel attacks
The proposal provides a chip-level safeguard against sensitive data being transmitted after it’s accessed.
How Let’s Encrypt doubled the percentage of secure websites in four years
A Q&A with J. Alex Halderman, who co-founded the nonprofit organization.
2019 CSE Graduate Student Honors Competition highlights outstanding research
The competition is the culmination of a process that narrows a field of entrants to a handful of finalists, each of whom gives a summary presentation on an area of their research.Associated Press: November 7, 2019
Study: Russia’s web-censoring tool sets pace for imitators
New research by Prof. Roya Ensafi sheds light on the implications of this technology.How Russia’s online censorship could jeopardize internet freedom worldwide
The nation is using inexpensive commodity equipment to block 170K domains on more than 1K privately-owned ISPs.
Ars Technica: November 5, 2019
Siri, Alexa, and Google Home can be controlled with lasers, new research shows
MEMS mics respond to light as if it were sound, discovered by a team including Profs. Kevin Fu and Dan GenkinResearchers take control of Siri, Alexa, and Google Home with lasers
The newly discovered microphone vulnerability allows attackers to remotely inject inaudible and invisible commands into voice assistants using light.
H.V. Jagadish recognized with Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award
Prof Jagadish is an internationally recognized expert in the field of very large databases.
Offensive vehicle security toolbox makes car hacking easier
The new system is designed to save security researchers time and effort spent reverse-engineering the message format of every vehicle they study.
New tool combats evolving internet censorship methods
Technology pioneered by Michigan researchers can circumvent many effective website blocking tools
ProPublica: October 29, 2019
The Market for Voting Machines Is Broken. This Company Has Thrived in It.
This article highlights concerns about voting machines made by ES&S, the nation’s largest supplier of voting technology, and the tactics used by the company to continue its dominance. Prof. J. Alex Halderman is quoted on how the company’s tactics haver slowed progress toward secure elections.Two CSE grad students selected for Rising Stars in EECS Workshop
The workshop brings together outstanding women interested in pursuing academic careers in electrical engineering and computer science.
Year of vulnerability hunting uncovers potential attacks on Intel Chips, RAM
All three of these attacks put users’ privacy at risk, exploiting new routes to sensitive data.CSE faculty bring significant showing to major systems conference
Researchers designed three new systems to speed up code at several key bottlenecks.
$2M NSF grant to explore data equity systems
Researchers plan to establish a framework for a national institute that would enable research using sensitive data, while preventing misuse and misinterpretation.$1M NSF grant supports new system for gathering, structuring data with ease
The team’s new tool will combine of software and data to make gathering structured data dramatically easier.
7 new faculty in CSE
The new additions to the department offer a breadth of research and educational experience, with projects spanning robotic interaction and the future of programming languages.
New attack on autonomous vehicle sensors creates fake obstacles
Up to this point, no attacks had been discovered targeting a car’s LiDAR system—but a major new finding from researchers at the University of Michigan has demonstrated what that might look like.
“Mind reading” study looks inside coders’ brains
Using real-time fMRI readings, researchers linked spatial reasoning with CS problem solving.
Automated tool optimizes complex programs better than humans
Erie provided database repairs that were previously performed exclusively by human programmers.
PET Award for making privacy policies easier to read
The research generated a chatbot to help users sift through important details in privacy policies.
Best paper award for analysis of a decade of malware reports
The research suggests that common blacklist-based prevention systems are ineffective.
Three papers chosen as IEEE Micro Top Picks
Top Picks is an annual special edition of IEEE Micro magazine that acknowledges the 10-12 most significant research papers.
Ars Technica: June 11, 2019
Researchers use Rowhammer bit flips to steal 2048-bit crypto key
RAMBleed side-channel attack, discovered in part by Michigan researchers, works even when DRAM is protected by error-correcting code.Ars Technica: May 14, 2019
New speculative execution bug leaks data from Intel chips’ internal buffers
Intel-specific vulnerability was found by researchers including Prof. Daniel Genkin’s group, calling their discovery of the attack Fallout.Peter Chen voted 2019 HKN Professor of the Year in CSE
This is the fifth time that Prof. Chen has been named Professor of the Year by EECS students.
CSE alum Qi Alfred Chen selected for ProQuest Dissertation Award
Chen’s dissertation research was dedicated to developing proactive defense approaches to the new security challenges of a hyper-connected world.
Award for helping popular websites better direct their internet traffic
Edge Fabric offers providers real-time performance analysis and a way to incorporate this data into routing decisions.
Chowdhury receives VMWare Award to further research on cluster-wide memory efficiency
Chowdhury’s work has produced important results that can make memory in data centers both cheaper and more efficient.
Prof. J. Alex Halderman named a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow
Halderman will work to further educate lawmakers, future cybersecurity experts, and the public about how to ensure that election results can relied upon and verified
Michigan’s new Election Security Commission holds inaugural meeting on U-M Campus
The meeting began the commission’s review and assessment of election security in Michigan.
Halderman co-chairs new commission to protect Michigan votes
The effort seeks to protect the integrity of every vote.
Chowdhury wins NSF CAREER award for making memory cheaper, more efficient in big data centers
Chowdhury connects all unused memory in a data cluster and treats it as a single unit.
Two solutions for GPU efficiency can boost AI performance
Chowdhury’s lab multiplied the number of jobs a GPU cluster can finish in a set amount of time
Election security: Halderman recommends actions to ensure integrity of US systems
In congressional testimony, professor urges $370M in federal funding to replace outdated machines.
Personalized knowledge graphs for faster search and digital assistants
Graphs that are customized, stored locally, and able to change over time can enable faster and more accurate searching and digital assistants
Speeding up code with clever data manipulation
Kasikci presents a method to improve a program’s ability to use data in a straightforward, efficient way
Automated software repair paper recognized for 10 years of influence
Ten years ago, Prof. Westley Weimer set out to shave off time and expenditure sunk into patch fixes.
Outstanding commitment to undergraduate mentorship
“Thanks to his tireless support and unparalleled patience, I am now equipped with a fundamental research skill set.”
Facebook Fellowship for research on web privacy, security, and censorship
McDonald works to develop better privacy and security tools for marginalized communities
Online censorship detector aims to make the internet a freer place
Censored Planet could provide new insight into the flow of online information
Jagadish appointed director of Michigan Institute for Data Science
Jagadish will help lead MIDAS into its next stage and further expand data science efforts across disciplines.
Bridging the “last centimeter barrier” in electronic communications
Michigan Engineering researchers led by Prof. Pinaki Mazumder have created a new chip interconnect technology using terahertz surface-wave interconnects that will enable ultra fast data transmissions.
Using drones, a new software tool can bring LTE networks anywhere
SkyCore is a complete software solution to deploying mobile networks on unmanned drones
Study reveals new data on region-specific website blocking practices
A team of researchers unearthed new data on geographic denial of access to web content in a new paper.
A secure future for US elections starts in the classroom
A new special topics course on election cybersecurity gives students an examination of the past, present, and future of US elections.
Making software failures a little less catastrophic
Researchers have implemented a new way to diagnose software failures with a high degree of accuracy and efficiency.
Tyche: A new permission model to defend against smart home hacks
“The work is an important step towards understanding how to make tradeoffs between usability and security.”
Intel processor vulnerability could put millions of PCs at risk
Patches can provide protection.
CSE welcomes 9 new faculty
Get to know the new arrivals.Tool for structuring data creates efficiency for data scientists
Foofah is a tool that can help to minimize the effort and required background knowledge needed to clean up data.
Finding meaning in varied data
Jie Song devised a method to combine summarized datasets that group information by incompatible units.
Necmiye Ozay receives Henry Russel Award for extraordinary accomplishment
Ozay is one of four U-M faculty members selected to receive a Henry Russel Award for 2019. The Award is one of the university’s highest honors for junior faculty members.
Undocumented immigrants’ privacy at risk online, on phones
When it comes to their smartphones, immigrants struggle to apply instinctive caution, according to a study by a team of University of Michigan researchers.
Cafarella Receives VLDB Test of Time Award for Structured Web Data Search
This award is given to the VLDB paper published ten years earlier that has had the most influence since its publication.
Connected cars can lie, posing a new threat to smart cities
The day when cars can talk to each other – and to traffic lights, stop signs, guardrails and even pavement markings – is rapidly approaching.
Designing a flexible future for massive data centers
A new approach recreates the power of a large server by linking up and pooling the resources of smaller computers with fast networking technology.
Zuckerberg Capitol Hill testimony: Engineering experts offer comments
U-M profs weigh new business model, European-style regulation
Three CSE faculty selected for Google Faculty Research Awards
Profs. Jia Deng, Roya Ensafi, and Manos Kapritsos have been selected to receive Google Faculty Research Awards.
‘I hacked an election. So can the Russians.’
Professor Alex Halderman and the New York Times staged a mock election to demonstrate voting machine vulnerability.
Michigan researchers discover vulnerabilities in next-generation connected vehicle technology
The vulnerability allows an attacker to manipulate a new intelligent traffic control algorithm and cause severe traffic jams.
CSE PhD student Matt Bernhard on the Facebook data breach
In this video, CSE PhD Student Matt Bernhard weighs in on the matter Facebook data harvesting, such as that done by Cambridge Analytica.
Chat tool simplifies tricky online privacy policies
Automated chatbot uses artificial intelligence to weed through fine print
Michigan researchers awarded 2018 Applied Networking Research Prize for their work on speeding up the mobile web
The researchers, including Prof. Harsha Madhyastha and CSE graduate students Vaspol Ruamviboonsuk and Muhammed Uluyol, received prize for their paper, “Vroom: Accelerating the Mobile Web with Server-Aided Dependency Resolution.”
Internet-scanning U-M startup offers new approach to cybersecurity
Censys is the first commercially available internet-wide scanning tool. It helps IT experts to secure large networks with a constantly changing array of devices.
FCC repeals net neutrality: Engineering experts offer comments
A long-standing tenet of the internet was overturned today.
An armed robber’s Supreme Court case could affect all Americans’ digital privacy for decades to come
How much can your cellphone reveal about where you go?
Net neutrality repeal: Michigan Engineers weigh in
On Dec. 14, the FCC will vote on the rules that today ensure internet service providers treat all web content equally.
Two faculty named AAAS fellows
Professors H. V. Jagadish and Christopher Poulsen are honored for advancing socially impactful research.
Manos Kapritsos and collaborators win USENIX security paper award
Their paper introduces a new programming language and tool called Vale that supports flexible, automated verification of high-performance assembly code.
“Learning database” speeds queries from hours to seconds
Verdict can make databases deliver answers more than 200 times faster while maintaining 99 percent accuracy.
Accelerating the mobile web
New Vroom software could double its speed.
Prof. J. Alex Halderman testifies in front of senate intelligence committee on secure elections
His remarks focused on vulnerabilities in the US voting system and a policy agenda for securing the system against the threat of hacking.
Lattice Data, Inc supports CSE students
The gift supplemented the Computer Science and Engineering Special Projects Fund.
A breakthrough for large scale computing
New software finally makes ‘memory disaggregation’ practical.
Brian Noble named chair of Computer Science and Engineering
On the faculty since 1998, Noble was most recently associate dean for undergraduate education.
Smartphone security hole
‘Open port’ backdoors are common.
Jack Kosaian selected for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Jack has enjoyed involvement in research across diverse domains within the College of Engineering.
Open ports act as security wormholes into mobile devices
Researchers have for the first time characterized a widespread vulnerability in the software that runs on mobile devices.
Qi Alfred Chen receives Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for research into network and system security
Chen investigates how to develop defense approaches that can fundamentally address security challenges in existing and future smart systems.
Barzan Mozafari named Morris Wellman Faculty Development Professor
Prof. Mozafari is passionate about building large-scale data-intensive systems that are more scalable, more robust, and more predictable.
Harsha Madhyastha selected for Google Faculty Award
Prof. Madhyastha seeks to enable the cloud provider to monitor traffic on behalf of all the web services hosted on its platform.
Andrew Quinn selected for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Andrew’s research creates cluster-scale systems that allow developers to quickly understand and debug programs.
Andrew Quinn selected for Microsoft research PhD fellowship
Andrew’s research creates cluster-scale systems that allow developers to quickly understand and debug programs.
Prof. Z. Morley Mao selected to receive CoE George J. Huebner, Jr. Research Excellence award
Prof. Mao has led inquiries into issues of Internet routing, measurement and security, wide-area and enterprise network management, malware behavior analysis and host-based security in general.
Prof. Jason Flinn named ACM Fellow for contributions to mobile computing and distributed systems
Prof. Flinn has been an active researcher in the field of mobile computing for a number of years.
Alumnus Tim Howes chosen for Arbor Networks PhD Research Impact Lecture and Award
Dr. Howes’ doctoral research focused on Internet directory services, and he co-invented LDAP, the Internet directory protocol, while a graduate student at U-M.
Harsha Madhyastha selected for Facebook Faculty Award
Prof. Madhyastha’s recent research has focused on enabling latency-sensitive web services to optimize user experience.
Shadows in the Dark Web
Secrets lurk in the dark web, the 95 percent of the internet that most of us can’t see. One U-M professor is bringing some of those secrets to light, making the digital and the real world a little safer.Peter Honeyman receives USENIX Test of Time Award
The USENIX Test of Time Awards recognizes papers presented at its respective conference from at least 10 years ago that have had a lasting impact on their fields.
Several Michigan Papers Presented at 2016 USENIX Security Symposium
A total of five papers authored by CSE researchers were presented.Algorithms can be more fair than humans
Still, it’s not guaranteed, as seen in Amazon’s same-day delivery service. Algorithm designers may not even realize a problem has crept in.
‘The most interesting tech IPO of the year’ was founded by alums
A Q&A with the Michigan Engineering alumni who founded Twilio, a “unicorn” in the tech industry.
Researchers David Adrian and Alex Halderman receive Pwnie Award for work on DROWN attack
DROWN allows attackers to break encryption used to protect HTTPS websites and read or steal sensitive communications.
With over 7 million certificates issued, Let’s Encrypt aims to secure the entire web
In order to bring HTTPS to everyone, Prof. Halderman joined forces in 2012 with colleagues at Mozilla and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to found Let’s Encrypt, a non-profit certificate authority with the mission of making the switch to HTTPS vastly easier.
Summer Bootcamp prepares undergraduates for work with big data
The Big Data Summer Bootcamp is a six-week interdisciplinary training and research program at the University of Michigan.
CSE alumna Adriane Chapman recognized with Test of Time Award from ACM SIGMOD
The SIGMOD Test of Time Award recognizes the best paper from the SIGMOD proceedings 10 years prior.
Danai Koutra receives 2016 SIGKDD Doctoral Dissertation Award
The annual SIGKDD doctoral dissertation award recognizes excellent research by doctoral candidates in the field of data mining and knowledge discovery.
Two Michigan papers win top awards at IEEE Security and Privacy Symposium
One of the paper describes and demonstrates a malicious hardware backdoor. The other demonstrated security failings in a commercial smart home platform.
Proxy optimizes webpage loading for better user experience
Klotski seeks to improve users’ perceptions of how quickly a page loads by maximizing the amount of important content on the page that is fetched and displayed within the user’s attention span.
Mosharaf Chowdhury receives ACM SIGCOMM Dissertation Award
Prof. Chowdhury bridges the gap between application-level performance and network-level optimizations through the coflow abstraction.
Michigan and Verisign researchers demonstrate new man-in-the-middle WPAD query attack
New security ramifications exist when laptops and smartphones configured for enterprise systems are used outside the enterprise in the realm of the wider web.
Thorny technical questions remain for net neutrality
Not all online traffic is the same; should we treat it the same anyway?
Pressure-sensing smartphones: Software lets mobile devices feel force
New software developed by CSE engineers and inspired, in part, by a Batman movie, could give any smartphone the capacity to sense force or pressure on its screen or body.
Hacking into homes: Security flaws found in SmartThings connected home system
New vulnerabilities form when hardware like electronic locks, thermostats, ovens, sprinklers, lights and motion sensors are networked and set up to be controlled remotely.
Michael J. Cafarella selected for Sloan Research Fellowship
He has built software systems for information extraction, database integration, and feature engineering and applied these to problems in the social sciences.
Passwords, privacy and protection: Can Apple meet FBI’s demand without creating a ‘backdoor’?
Prof. H.V. Jagadish sheds light on current issues regarding data privacy and technology.
Mosharaf Chowdhury receives Google Faculty Research Award
The project aims to create a new software stack for analytics over geo-distributed datasets.
Barzan Mozafari receives NSF CAREER Award to improve predictability of database systems
Prof. Mozafari is passionate about building large-scale data-intensive systems that are more scalable, more robust, and more predictable.
Secure your website now: Let’s Encrypt enters Public Beta
Let’s Encrypt allows anyone to request a free website security certificate without needing an invitation.
Cafarella and Lee named Morris Wellman Faculty Development Professors
The professorship is awarded to junior faculty members in recognition of outstanding contributions to teaching and research.
Censys enables fast searching of actionable internet data
The software enables users to ask questions about the hosts and networks that compose the Internet and get an immediate reply.
Michigan Researchers Win the 2016 Applied Networking Research Prize
In their paper, the researchers present the first report on global adoption rates of SMTP email security extensions.
The Promise and Perils of Predictive Policing Based on Big Data
Such tactics, even if effective in reducing crime, raise civil liberty concerns.
Computer Scientists Win Best Paper Award at ACM Conference on CCS for Exposing the Vulnerabilities of the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange
Diffie-Hellman is a popular algorithm used for encrypted communications, including emails VPNs, HTTPS, and other protocols where a client and server negotiate a shared secret key for communication
J. Alex Halderman Named One of Popular Science’s Brilliant Ten
Halderman has met significant contributions in the areas of electronic voting security, internet security, and electronic censorship resistance.
Peter M. Chen Recognized for Influential Work in Operating Systems with ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award
The paper was published at the 2002 Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation.
J. Alex Halderman and Collaborators Receive NSF Cybersecurity Award to Develop Rapid-Response Architecture
This project strives to positively impact the availability and reliability of the Internet and provide the security community with tools, platforms, and comprehensive vulnerability measurement data.
Prof. Jason Flinn Receives U-M’s Faculty Recognition Award
Prof. Flinn joined the department in 2002 as an assistant professor.
$3.46M to Combine Machine Learning on Big Data with Physical Simulations
The focal point of the project will be a new computing resource, called ConFlux, which is designed to enable supercomputer simulations to interface with large datasets while running.
Michigan Researchers Win Best Poster Award at MobiSys 2015
It describes their work in measuring important network phenomena for debugging problems at the edge of a cellular network.
Two Michigan Papers Share the Best Paper Award at MobiSys 2015
In an unusual turn of events, we’ve tied with ourselves for this one.
Security Flaw in New South Wales Puts Thousands of Online Votes at Risk
Securing Internet voting requires solving some of the hardest problems in computer security, and even the smallest mistakes can undermine the integrity of the election result.
Z. Morley Mao Receives Google Faculty Research Award
Mao’s goal was to create a diagnosis tool to achieve responsive and energy-efficient mobile apps that work well in diverse network conditions.
J. Alex Halderman Selected for Sloan Research Fellowship
Prof. Halderman’s research interests span software security, network security, data privacy, anonymity, electronic voting, censorship resistance, digital rights management, computer forensics, ethics, and cybercrime, as well as the interaction of technology with law, governmental regulation, and international affairs.
Four CSE Faculty Selected for 2014-15 College of Engineering Awards
Congratulations to the following CSE Faculty recipients of 2014-15 College of Engineering Awards.
Computer science researchers aim to securely encrypt every website
A project is underway which will offer a free, automated, and easy process for converting webservers from HTTP to HTTPS that is implemented with a single command.
Computer Scientists Win Best Paper Award at 2014 ACM Internet Measurement Conference
The research team performed a comprehensive, measurement-based analysis of the impact of the recent Heartbleed vulnerability.
Sneak attack through smartphone shared memory
A weakness believed to exist in Android, Windows and iOS operating systems could be used to obtain personal information from unsuspecting users, research at the University of Michigan has shown.
Deseret News: August 4, 2014
Utah is correct to both be at the front of online voting, and cautiously study security
Prof. J. Alex Halderman is the kind of friend to internet voting Utah needs – one who has the savvy to think and act like someone dedicated to hijacking an election.2014 Promotions of our faculty – congratulations!
Congratulations to Profs Bertacco, Flinn, Narayanasamy, Olson, Rais-Zadeh, and Zhong.