Emergency communication over cellular networks (4G, 5G, and beyond) is a vital part of our nation’s emergency response and disaster preparedness system. Its security, however, is still far from satisfactory due to cellular-specific technical challenges and the diversified requirements from standards organizations and administrative authorities.

She will share our research insights and findings on (1) identifying design defects in cellular emergency services standards, and (2) investigating the security of operational emergency services in the U.S., as well as the technical challenges we encountered and how to address them.  Her results show that operational cellular emergency services can be abused in deniable ways. She will also discuss emerging challenges and opportunities for safeguarding next-generation emergency services.

Yiwen Hu is an assistant professor in the CSEE Department at UMBC. She received her Ph.D. in computer science from Michigan State University and her B.S. degree from Zhejiang University, China. Her research interests span wireless communication, network security, mobile systems and applications. Her recent work focuses on safeguarding next-generation emergency services and advancing Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications.

You can participate in the online seminar via WebEx.