Do I really have that much mail?

Apple Mail. Oh no you don't. Interesting that ln(18446744073707454940)/ln(2)=64.

USENIX Workshop on Health Security & Privacy (HealthSec 2010)

If you conduct research on security and privacy of health information technology, then you should consider submitting a 2-page position paper to the USENIX Workshop on Health Security & Privacy (HealthSec 2010). Submissions are due April 9, 2010. I am co-organizing the workshop with my colleagues Prof. Yoshi Kohno (UW) and Prof. Avi Rubin (JHU) and a healthy dose of security/privacy expertise from the program committee. What I think is notable about our venue is the degree of interdisciplinary research represented by the program committee. We have members from several research disciplines including computer science, medicine, and social science. Moreover, we have members from multiple sectors in health information technology (academia, government, industry). We intend for the event to bring together researchers with bold positions on how to improve security and privacy for emerging health information technologies. There are many security and privacy problems waiting to be solved in areas such as electronic medical records, wireless medical devices, and regulatory and policy issues.

The workshop itself is co-located with USENIX Security in Washington, DC on August 10, 2010. See you there!

From the CFP:

HealthSec is intended as a forum for lively discussion of aggressively innovative and potentially disruptive ideas on all aspects of medical and health security and privacy. A fundamental goal of the workshop is to promote cross-disciplinary interactions between fields, including, but not limited to, technology, medicine, and policy. Surprising results and thought-provoking ideas will be strongly favored; complete papers with polished results in well-explored research areas are comparatively discouraged. Position papers will be selected for their potential to stimulate or catalyze further research and explorations of new directions, as well as for their potential to spark productive discussions at the workshop.

UMass Amherst CS Alumni Event in Boston Area March 4

A number of faculty from the UMass Amherst Computer Science department will be kicking back with alums and friends on March 4 in Cambridge (Massachusetts, that is). We were searching for space in the Boston area, so we Googled it. The event takes place at Google's Cafe in Kendall Square. For fairness, next time we will consider Binging it.



Event details appear on http://www.cs.umass.edu/alumsocial2010/

p.s., Alums may order the awesome binary tree-shirt from the student ACM chapter at UMass Amherst.

Security of Automatic Software Updates

Several years ago, students at UMass Amherst discovered how to co-opt an automated software update mechanism to gain root access on a computer. The most significant security flaw involved a McAfee anti-virus product whereby an automatic, nightly update allowed the students to get root access on a Mac. Back then, the students wrote code manually.

Fast forward from 2006 to 2009. Now security researchers have reportedly created an automated tool to discover insecure software updates. There are likely a lot of vulnerable products out there, and it's not surprising that many small software houses forget to test whether the backdoor is kept locked: the software update.

Our original paper and video demonstration shows how to co-opt a software update mechanism built into an anti-virus product to gain root on a Mac. Fortunately, that particular bug has been reportedly patched. But what else remains unpatched?

The Real Reasons to Support Language Study

Refreshing comments about the importance of studying languages appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Real-Reasons-to-Support/47450/