News

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.

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.

Ransomware attacks put availability of medical devices at risk: FDA cyber chief

Kevin Fu, acting director of cybersecurity at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, says that “You can’t have a safe and effective medical device if it’s unavailable” due to ransomware.

This magic room charges your phone as soon as you walk in

Prof. Alanson Sample discusses his new research, which created rooms with wireless electricity, enabling the use of lamps and fans and charging cells phones all without the need for power cords.

Experimental Morpheus CPU is ‘mind-bogglingly terrible’ to crack

Cybersecurity researchers have found the Morpheous chip, designed by a U-M team lead by S. Jack Hu Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Todd Austin, to virtually eliminate whole classes of exploits.

Ransomware, other cyber threats mount as medtech industry tries to adapt

Prof. Kevin Fu is interviewed on how cyber threats to the medical technology industry, including ransomware and other malware, are growing in sophistication and potentially putting patient safety at risk.

Researchers Are Trying to Create an Unhackable Computer Processor

This article highlights the secure processor design developed by a U-M research team led by S. Jack Hu Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Todd Austin. The processor constantly encrypts parts of the machine’s functions to obscure how it works, thus blocking potential hackers from being able to exploit it.

Shape-shifting computer chip thwarts an army of hackers

Research led by S. Jack Hu Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Todd Austin have developed Morpheus, a secure new computer processor that recently defeated the attempts of 525 security researchers who tried to hack it.

Did UM team build an unhackable computer chip? Nobody has beaten it

The MORPHEUS chip, designed in Prof. Todd Austin’s lab, has survived the tests of hundreds of hackers – it’s still unhackable.

SambaNova Raises Eye-Popping Series D Funding

Data center AI chip and system company SambaNova has announced an enormous Series D funding round of $676 million, pushing the company’s valuation above $5 billion. SambaNova’s cofounder is alumnus Kunle Olukotun (BSE EE ’85; MSE PhD CSE ’87 ’91).

U-M Computer Chip MORPHEUS Defeats 500+ Hackers

MORPHEUS, a computer chip developed by Prof. Todd Austin’s lab, has defeated more than 500 hackers invited by the school to find its vulnerabilities.

Building a Preeminent Research Lab in the Arab Region: The Case of QCRI

ACM look back at the founding of the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), one of three national research institutes established in 2010 with the help of Prof. Karem Sakallah.

U-M Africa Week engages audience in conversations on development and growth of Africa

Valeria Bertacco, professor of computer science and engineering and vice provost for engaged learning, was one of three organizers of Africa Week, U-M’s first conference on Africa’s issues and development. She hopes Africa Week will allow students to understand opportunities to engage with global communities.

Traveling beyond Moore’s Law – together

Researchers led by Bredt Professor of Engineering Trevor Mudge and Prof. Ron Dreslinski have partnered with ARM and the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh to run DARPA’s Software Defined Hardware program.

Probing tech’s soft underbelly

Prof. Kevin Fu’s lab has demonstrated weaknesses in the electronic devices and sensors that we rely upon to illustrate the need for improvements in cybersecurity. He is profiled in this article.

Nvidia makes its GPU-powered genome sequencing tool available free to those studying COVID-19

Founded by Prof. Scott Mahlke and his former students Mehrzad Samadi and Ankit Sethia, Parabricks was acquired by Nvidia in December 2019. Parabricks accelerates genomic analysis.

Breaking Into a Smart Home With A Laser – Smarter Every Day 229

‘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.

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 Genkin