Carnegie Mellon University

David Brumley

David Brumley

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

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  • 2202 Collaborative Innovation Center
  • 412-268-3851
Address 5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Bio

David Brumley is an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University with a primary appointment in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and a courtesy appointment in the Computer Science Department. He is also the previous Director of CyLab, the CMU Security and Privacy Institute. His research focuses on software security.

Prof. Brumley received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and a BA in Mathematics from the University of Northern Colorado. He served as a Computer Security Officer for Stanford University from 1998-2002 and handled thousands of computer security incidents in that capacity. He is the faculty mentor for the CMU Hacking Team Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), which is ranked internationally as one of the top teams in the world according to ctftime.org. The team was ranked #1 in 2011, #2 in 2012, and #1 in 2013, and won DefCon 2013. He received the USENIX Security best paper awards in 2003 and 2007, an ICSE distinguished paper award in 2014.

Prof. Brumley honors include being selected for the 2010 DARPA CSSP program and 2013 DARPA Information Science and Technology Advisory Board, a 2010 NSF CAREER award, a 2010 United States Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Obama (the highest award in the US for early career scientists according to wikipedia), and a 2013 Sloan Foundation award.

Education

Ph.D.
Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University

M.S.
Computer Science
Stanford University

B.A.
Mathematics
University of Northern Colorado

Research

Keywords

  • Cyber-autonomy
  • Software security
  • Cryptography
  • Verification

Related news

Thursday, August 15, 2019

CMU crowned hacking champs for fifth time in seven years

Carnegie Mellon University’s competitive hacking team, the Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), just won its fifth hacking world championship in seven years at this year’s DefCon security conference, widely considered the “World Cup” of hacking. The championship, played in the form of a virtual game of “capture the flag,” was held August 8-11 in Las Vegas.
Wednesday, May 01, 2019

Brumley on Nielsen’s departure and cybersecurity

In an article from The Washington Post, cybersecurity experts in government, academia, and the private sector discussed the implications and consequences of Kirstjen Nielsen’s ouster from the Department of Homeland Security.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019

First round of Secure and Private IoT Initiative funded projects announced

CyLab’s Secure and Private IoT Initiative (IoT@CyLab) has broken ground as the first round of funded proposals have been announced. Twelve selected projects will be funded for one year, and results will be presented at the IoT@CyLab annual summit next year.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Overcoming the human bottleneck with autonomy

On August 4, 2016, the mission of cyber autonomy was declared accomplished. Meanwhile, back in Pittsburgh, a CyLab graduate student quietly hacked away at her own research in cyber autonomy.
Monday, January 22, 2018

Brumley featured on SciTech Now

Recently, David Brumley was featured on an episode of SciTech Now, where he talked about the importance of understanding basic cybersecurity concepts.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017

A grand challenge

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) gathered for a regional meeting and symposium at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute to discuss cybersecurity, which is now one of the greatest challenges in the 21st century.
Monday, March 27, 2017

CyLab challenges high school students to give hacking a try

Carnegie Mellon University aims to build a talent pipeline into the cyber workforce by introducing computer security skills to middle and high school students through picoCTF, a free, online hacking contest.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Brumley featured in Cyberscoop

David Brumley was interviewed by Cyberscoop in a feature article on his impact on education and the cybersecurity field.
Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Brumley pens op-ed on cybersecurity in Christian Science Monitor

CyLab Director David Brumley recently published an op-ed on cybersecurity in The Christian Science Monitor.
Thursday, December 15, 2016

Brumley publishes op-ed in The Hill

David Brumley published an op-ed in The Hill on President-Elect Trump's promise to make cybersecurity a top priority for his administration.
Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Who's been peeking at your data?

Everyone understands why security is important—bad guys break into a database and steal personal photos or credit card information—but understanding privacy is a bit trickier.
Tuesday, August 09, 2016

CyLab wins big during DefCon weekend

Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute is celebrating winning big in Vegas, as home of the champions of two major hacking competitions this past weekend.
Monday, August 08, 2016

Carnegie Mellon sweeps DefCon as team wins third ‘World Series of Hacking’ title in four years

The win comes on the heels of CMU-spinoff ForAllSecure’s win at the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge just days earlier.
Friday, August 05, 2016

CMU-spinoff ForAllSecure wins $2 million top prize at the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge

ForAllSecure, a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff startup, just took home $2 million in prize money as the winners of the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), a first-of-its-kind hacking contest in which all participants are autonomous computer systems.
Thursday, July 28, 2016

CMU-spinoff to compete in DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge

Four years ago, Carnegie Mellon professor David Brumley had an idea: automate the process of finding software bugs. These bugs are at an all-time high with the explosion of the Internet of Things—billions of connected devices, like smart thermostats or fitness trackers—which are manufactured with little attention paid to security. Now, building off research that began in Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab, Brumley is heading to a national stage to compete against the country’s best automated bug finders.
Friday, June 03, 2016

Brumley quoted in Parent Herald on cybersecurity education

CyLab Director David Brumley has been quoted in the Parent Herald about cybersecurity education. As noted in the article, Carnegie Mellon has more than 50 courses on cybersecurity and privacy and is devoted to “arming students with the necessary information and skills on cybersecurity.”
Friday, April 22, 2016

Brumley discusses CyLab’s 50+ cybersecurity courses

CyLab Director David Brumley has been contributing to the conversation about the need for teaching cybersecurity to be a national imperative.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Brumley in WSJ: "We need to stop stigmatizing hackers"

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor David Brumley has published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on ways to address the inadequate pipeline of talent to fill thousands of unfilled cybersecurity jobs.
Friday, March 04, 2016

Brumley gives Harvard Business Review digital seminar

CyLab Director and ECE Associate Professor David Brumley gave an online seminar as part of the Harvard Business Review Digital Seminar Series.
Monday, February 29, 2016

Brumley quoted on Obama’s cybersecurity spending plan

CyLab Director David Brumley was quoted on thirdcertainty.com about President Obama’s 2017 budget proposal, which calls for a $19 billion increase in government cybersecurity funding.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016

David Brumley to co-chair first ever “Enigma” conference

CyLab director David Brumley will co-chair Enigma -- a uniquely positioned vendor-neutral security conference. With support from founding sponsor Google, Enigma will be held January 25-27, 2016, in San Francisco featuring an impartial program presented by academic and industry experts offering immediately useful responses to security breaches.