Thomas Heydt-Benjamin

IBM Research Zurich

Presentations:

• (5763) Privacy Supporting Identity Systems - Theory Meets Practice

Short bio

Thomas Heydt-Benjamin is currently responsible for advances in security and 
privacy properties of ubiquitous and pervasive computing systems in the IBM 
Zurich Research Laboratory with the goal of producing practical secure 
electronic identification systems with user centric privacy management in 
resource constrained contexts such as electronic identity cards. Thomas brings 
with him to IBM his prior experience in both attacks on and defenses of 
pervasive computing systems. In 2007 he investigated new contactless smart 
credit cards used in the United States, discovering serious flaws. In 2008 he 
examined security and privacy properties of pacemakers and implantable cardiac 
defibrillators, determining that some aspects of existing designs may present 
dangerous security vulnerabilities.  Now a member of the security and 
cryptography team at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Thomas's team invents novel 
solutions to real world security problems in resource constrained devices 
similar to the credit cards and pacemakers he has previously studied.

Thomas started hacking and exploring computer security systems at age 6 when 
first exposed to assembler programming on the IBM PC. This early interest lead 
to formal study of computer science during high school through the Science 
Honors Program at Columbia University. He then earned a Bachelor of Science in 
computer science from Yale University, and a Master of Science in computer 
science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.