Upcoming Event

Distinguished seminar with Dr. Butler is happening on October 18th, at 10:00 – 11:00 AM, in Dupuis 217, Queen’s University

Dr. Kevin Butler

Title: From Blue Boxes to Black Boxes: Exposing Security Vulnerabilities in Mobile Devices and Networks

Abstract: The history of hacking is intimately tied to telecommunications networks. While these networks have changed over the past 50 years and complexity has migrated outwards to devices, one enduring challenge has been a lack of accessibility. In this talk, we’ll discuss some of our recent efforts to better understand the phone side of smartphones by examining command sets and processors. We also look at security assessment techniques and how they can expose vulnerabilities in core cellular infrastructure.

Bio: Kevin Butler (he/him) is a Professor of Computer and Information Science and Engineering and Director of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research at the University of Florida. He directs the Center for Privacy and Security of Marginalized and Vulnerable Populations (PRISM), a National Science Foundation Frontiers project. Kevin’s research focuses on the security and trustworthiness of computer systems and data, as well as the security and privacy of users accessing computing systems. Kevin received his PhD from Penn State University in 2010, his MS from Columbia University in 2004, and his BSc degree from Queen’s University in 1999.

Kevin received an NSF CAREER award in 2013 and was co-chair of the International Telecommunication Union’s Security, Infrastructure, and Trust Working Group within the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative from 2016-2022. Kevin was technical program co-chair of the 2022 USENIX Security Symposium and was conference chair of the 2020 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference and 2017 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, for which he received the IEEE Technical Committee on Security and Privacy’s Outstanding Community Service Award. He is on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security, and ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice. He is a member of the CRA’s Community Computing Consortium and was named to a PCAST review working group. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM.