University of Tartu - ©2011 Rafik Chaabouni - Last update: 08.10.2013 11:38
Date: 10/10/2013 Time: 16:15-18:00 Location: J. Liivi 2, room 317 (next to the coffee room)
Speaker: Assistant Prof. J. Alex Halderman (Invited speaker from the University of Michigan)
Title: Electronic Voting: Danger and Opportunity
Abstract:
In many countries, computer technology has transformed the way citizens participate in democracy, through electronic voting machines and Internet voting systems. Computerized voting raises security risks that are only beginning to be understood outside the research lab, but, at the same time, there are opportunities for technology--designed correctly and applied intelligently--to make elections more secure and efficient than ever. In this talk, I will discuss e-voting security in the context of my first-hand studies of voting systems used in the U.S. and abroad. Along the way, I’ll share adventures from my work at the intersection of technology and political power.
Brief Bio:
J. Alex Halderman is an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on computer security and privacy, with an emphasis on problems that broadly impact society and public policy. He is well known for developing the "cold boot" attack against disk encryption, which altered widespread security assumptions about the behavior of RAM, influenced computer forensics practice, and inspired a new subfield of theoretical cryptography. In recent work, he exposed widespread flaws in public key generation that compromised the security of 5-10% of Internet hosts serving HTTPS and SSH. His work has been recognized with two best paper awards from the USENIX Security conference. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Princeton University.