BEN(JAMIN) RANSFORD

PHOTO: MEGAN SIELKEN

GRADUATE STUDENT IN COMPUTER SCIENCE ∞ RANSFORD@CS.UMASS.EDU

Spring 2009

I am running this semester's security reading group, meeting Fridays at 2pm in room CS303.

Research

I work on applied security and ultra-low-power devices (e.g., computational RFID). My advisor is Kevin Fu. I am supported by a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

Selected papers follow. Also see DBLP. BibTeX for these.

M. Salajegheh, S. S. Clark, B. Ransford, K. Fu, and Ari Juels. CCCP: Secure Remote Storage for Computational RFIDs. USENIX Security, August 2009 (PDF).
B. Ransford, S. S. Clark, M. Salajegheh, and K. Fu. Getting things done on computational RFIDs with energy-aware checkpointing and voltage-aware scheduling. USENIX Workshop on Power Aware Computing and Systems (HotPower), December 2008. (PDF, slides [3.9MB PDF])
S. Lee, B. Ransford, K. Fu, T. Kohno, and W. H. Maisel. Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) of Implanted Cardiac Devices by MP3 Player Headphones. American Heart Association Annual Scientific Sessions, November 2008. Media coverage includes AP, Reuters, CNN, Washington Post.
D. Halperin, T. S. Heydt-Benjamin, B. Ransford, S. S. Clark, B. Defend, W. Morgan, K. Fu, T. Kohno, and W. H. Maisel. Pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators: Software radio attacks and zero-power defenses. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland), May 2008. Outstanding paper award. (PDF, FAQ, slides [5.9MB PDF]) Media coverage includes New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe. Also Schneier, Slashdot, RISKS.

Talks and posters:

CCCP: Secure Remote Storage for Computational RFIDs, IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (Oakland), May 2009.
Mementos, a secure platform for batteryless pervasive computing, USENIX Security works-in-progress session, August 2008.
Zero-Power Security for Implantable Medical Devices, USENIX Security, July 2008.
Security and Privacy of Medical Devices, IEEE Workshop on Aging Services and Technology, June 2008.
Zero-Power Authentication, RFID CUSP Workshop, January 2008.

Refer to the PRISMS lab's publications to see what else the group is doing.

Teaching

C: a short course for REU students, summer 2008.

In Three Dimensions

You may have met me at:

2009: Oakland '09, USENIX Security '09.

2008: RFID CUSP Workshop, DMDConf '08, Oakland '08, WAST '08, USENIX Security '08, OSDI '08, HotPower '08.

Background

I graduated from Cornell University in 2001 with a B.S. degree in Computer Science and a specialization in Psychology. Between 1998 and 2007 I worked as a programmer, system administrator, and freelance consultant. I grew up in upstate New York and have also lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Personal

I have an awesome, gorgeous, culinarily brilliant wife and a 0-year-old son.

I like the Oxford English Dictionary (link for on-campus users).

I have a personal web page. I also have a tumblelog .

∞ RIP DFW. ∞