Research

My research is in theoretical and applied cryptography. I design cryptographic systems that provide rigorous security while remaining useful in practice. Current work focuses on privacy-preserving search and data access, authentication from noisy sources, and election security and trustworthy audits.

Appointments

Education

Research Support

• SHIELD: Secure, Holistic Infrastructure for Election Logistics and Data. DHS, 2024–2025.
• Fleet Level Automatic Trust Discovery. Office of Naval Research, joint with the University of Rhode Island, 2024–2026.
• ARMOR: Secure Querying of Massive Scientific Datasets. NSF CICI, joint with Augusta University, 2023–2025.
• CAREER: Cryptographic Authentication from Biometrics. NSF CAREER, 2022–2027.
• Certification and Acceptance Testing of Electronic Voting Equipment. State of Connecticut, 2020–2026.
• TARTUFFE: Towards Attenuated Randomness Tracking and Universal Fuzzy Extraction. DARPA, UConn PI, 2021–2022.
• Adaptive Access Control for Zero Trust Architectures. Office of Naval Research, PI, 2021–2023.
• PANTHEON: Toolchain for Homomorphic Encryption and Online Secure Computation. IARPA, 2019–2020.
• Searchable Encryption for Biometric Databases. NSF CRII, PI, 2019–2021.
• Adaptive Generation of Trustworthy Configurations. Office of Naval Research, 2019–2021.
• Cybersecurity Research and Development Initiatives. Synchrony Financial, 2018–2019.
• Embedded System Authentication and New Authentication Techniques. Comcast, 2017.

Journal Papers

1. Benjamin W. Fuller. Impossibility of Efficient Information-Theoretic Fuzzy Extraction. Designs, Codes and Cryptography, 2024.
2. Chloe Cachet, Sohaib Ahmad, Luke Demarest, Serena Riback, Ariel Hamlin, and Benjamin W. Fuller. Multi Random Projection Inner Product Encryption, Applications to Proximity Searchable Encryption for the Iris Biometric. Information and Computation, 2023.
3. Devon Callahan, Timothy Curry, Hazel Davidson, Heytem Zitoun, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Laurent Michel. FASHION: Functional and Attack Graph Secured Hybrid Optimization of Virtualized Networks. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 2022.
4. Ran Canetti, Benjamin W. Fuller, Omer Paneth, Leonid Reyzin, and Adam Smith. Reusable Fuzzy Extractors for Low Entropy Distributions. Journal of Cryptology, 2021.
5. Benjamin W. Fuller, Xianrui Meng, and Leonid Reyzin. Computational Fuzzy Extractors. Information and Computation, 2020.
6. Benjamin W. Fuller, Leonid Reyzin, and Adam Smith. When Are Fuzzy Extractors Possible? IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 2020.
7. Chenglu Jin, Charles Herder, Lin Ren, Phuong Ha Nguyen, Benjamin W. Fuller, Srinivas Devadas, and Marten van Dijk. FPGA Implementation of a Cryptographically-Secure PUF Based on Learning Parity with Noise. Cryptography, 2017.
8. Benjamin W. Fuller, Adam O’Neil, and Leonid Reyzin. A Unified Approach to Deterministic Encryption—New Constructions and a Connection to Computational Entropy. Journal of Cryptology, 2015.

Conference Papers

1. Benjamin W. Fuller, Abigail Harrison, and Alexander Russell. Sublinear Risk-Limiting Audits from Direct Ballot Selection and Statistical Ballot Manifests. CCS 2026.
2. Maryam Rezapour and Benjamin W. Fuller. ProxCode: Efficient Biometric Proximity Searchable Encryption from Error Correcting Codes. CT-RSA 2026.
3. Amey Shukla, Luke Demarest, Benjamin W. Fuller, Sohaib Ahmad, Caleb Manicke, Alexander Russell, and Sixia Chen. Fuzzy Extractors are Practical: Cryptographic Strength Key Derivation from the Iris. CCS 2025.
4. Kaleel Mahmood, Caleb Manicke, Ethan Rathbun, Aayushi Verma, Sohaib Ahmad, Nicholas Stamatakis, Laurent Michel, and Benjamin W. Fuller. Busting the Paper Ballot: Voting Meets Adversarial Machine Learning. CCS 2025.
5. Chloe Cachet, Julie Ha, Luke Demarest, Sohaib Ahmad, and Benjamin W. Fuller. Private Eyes: Zero-Leakage Searchable Symmetric Encryption for the Iris Biometric. CODASPY 2025.
6. Benjamin W. Fuller, Alexander Russell, and Rashmi Pai. The Decisive Power of Indecision: Low-Variance Risk-Limiting Audits and Election Contestation via Marginal Mark Recording. USENIX Security 2024.
7. Mahdieh Heidaripour, Ladan Kian, Maryam Rezapour, Mark Holcomb, Benjamin W. Fuller, Gagan Agrawal, and Hoda Maleki. Organizing Records for Retrieval in Multi-Dimensional Range Searchable Encryption. SECRYPT 2024.
8. Chloe Cachet, Ariel Hamlin, Maryam Rezapour, and Benjamin W. Fuller. Upgrading Fuzzy Extractors. ACNS 2024.
9. Benjamin W. Fuller, Abigail Harrison, and Alexander Russell. Adaptive Risk-Limiting Ballot Comparison Audits. IEEE Security and Privacy, 2023.
10. Daniel Apon, Chloe Cachet, Peter Fenteany, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Feng-Hao Liu. Nonmalleable Digital Lockers without Setup. ASIACRYPT 2022.
11. Sohaib Ahmad and Benjamin W. Fuller. Inverting Biometric Models with Fewer Samples: Incorporating the Output of Multiple Models. IJCB 2022.
12. Timothy Curry, Gabe De Pace, Yan Sun, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Laurent Michel. DUELMIPs: Jointly Optimizing SDN Functionality and Security. Constraint Programming, 2022.
13. Chloe Cachet, Sohaib Ahmad, Luke Demarest, Ariel Hamlin, and Benjamin W. Fuller. Proximity Searchable Encryption for the Iris Biometric. AsiaCCS 2022.
14. Luke Demarest, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Alexander Russell. Code Offset in the Exponent. ITC, 2021.
15. Sohaib Ahmad and Benjamin W. Fuller. RESIST: Reconstruction of Irises from Templates. IJCB, 2020.
16. Peter Fenteany and Benjamin W. Fuller. Same Point Composable and Nonmalleable Obfuscated Point Functions. ACNS, 2020.
17. Sohaib Ahmad and Benjamin W. Fuller. ThirdEye: Triplet Based Iris Recognition without Normalization. BTAS, 2019.
18. Sailesh Simhadri, James Steel, and Benjamin W. Fuller. Cryptographic Authentication from the Iris. ISC, 2019.
19. Benjamin W. Fuller and Lowen Peng. Continuous-Source Fuzzy Extractors: Source Uncertainty and Security. ISIT, 2019.
20. Timothy Curry, Devon Callahan, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Laurent Michel. DOCSDN: Dynamic and Optimal Configuration of Software-Defined Networks. ACISP, 2019.
21. Quentin Alamélou, Paul-Edmond Berthier, Stéphane Cauchie, Chloe Cachet, Benjamin W. Fuller, Philippe Gaborit, and Sailesh Simhadri. Pseudoentropic Isometries: A New Framework for Fuzzy Extractor Reusability. AsiaCCS, 2018.
22. Robert Cunningham, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Sophia Yakoubov. Catching MPC Cheaters: Identification and Openability. ICITS, 2017.
23. Jeremy Blackthorne, Benjamin W. Fuller, Benjamin Kaiser, and Bülent Yener. Environmental Authentication in Malware. LatinCrypt, 2017.
24. Benjamin W. Fuller et al. SoK: Cryptographically Protected Database Search. IEEE Security and Privacy, 2017.
25. Benjamin W. Fuller, Leonid Reyzin, and Adam Smith. When Are Fuzzy Extractors Possible? ASIACRYPT, 2016.
26. Ran Canetti, Benjamin W. Fuller, Omer Paneth, Leonid Reyzin, and Adam Smith. Reusable Fuzzy Extractors via Digital Lockers. EUROCRYPT, 2016.
27. Benjamin W. Fuller and Leonid Reyzin. Unifying Leakage Classes: Simulatable Leakage and Pseudoentropy. ICITS, 2015.
28. Merrielle Spain, Benjamin W. Fuller, Kyle Ingols, and Robert Cunningham. Robust Keys from Physical Unclonable Functions. HOST, 2014.
29. Benjamin W. Fuller, Leonid Reyzin, and Xianrui Meng. Computational Fuzzy Extractors. ASIACRYPT, 2013.
30. Benjamin W. Fuller, Adam O’Neil, and Leonid Reyzin. A Unified Approach to Deterministic Encryption—New Constructions and a Connection to Computational Entropy. TCC, 2012.
31. Benjamin W. Fuller et al. ASE: Authenticated Statement Exchange. NCA, 2010.
32. Joseph Cooley, Roger Khazan, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Galen Pickard. GROK: A Practical System for Securing Group Communications. NCA, 2010.
33. Roger Khazan, Joseph Cooley, Galen Pickard, and Benjamin W. Fuller. GROK Secure Multi-User Chat at Red Flag 2007-03. MILCOM, 2008.

Workshop, Magazine, and Other Publications

• Sohaib Ahmad and Benjamin W. Fuller. Unconstrained Iris Segmentation from Convolutional Neural Networks. ACCV Workshop, 2018.
• Galen Pickard, Roger Khazan, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Joseph Cooley. DSKE: Dynamic Set Key Encryption. LCN Workshop, 2012.
• Tamara Yu, Benjamin W. Fuller et al. Integrated Environment Management for Information Operations Testbeds. VizSec Workshop, 2007.
• Gene Itkis, Venkat Chandar, Benjamin W. Fuller, Joseph Campbell, and Robert Cunningham. Iris Biometric Security Challenges and Possible Solutions: For Your Eyes Only? Using the Iris as a Key. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 2015.
• John Darby Mitchell, Uri Blumenthal, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Robert Cunningham. Authenticated Intention. U.S. Patent Application US20200026835A1, approved 2022.

Unpublished Manuscripts

• Charles Herder, Benjamin W. Fuller, Marten van Dijk, and Srinivas Devadas. Public Key Cryptosystems with Noisy Secret Keys. 2017.

Papers in Submission

1. Benjamin W. Fuller, Ariel Hamlin, Arinjita Paul, Maryam Rezapour, Ronak Sahu, Amey Shukla, and Mason Stuart. Updatable Oblivious Key Value Stores with Access Control and Application to Multi Key Searchable Encryption. 2026.
2. Noah Arce-Caliskan, Gadalia O’Bryan, Benjamin W. Fuller, Maryam Rezapour, and Amey Shukla. Sample-then-Correct: How to Amplify Fuzzy Extraction for Biometrics and Other Noisy Data. 2026.
3. Sage Pia, Ananya Appan, Maryam Rezapour, Amey Shukla, Nikhil Date, Benjamin W. Fuller, Ling Ren, and David Heath. Oblivious Single Access Machines are Concretely Efficient. 2026.
4. Mahdieh Heidaripour, Maryam Rezapour, Gagan Agrawal, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Hoda Maleki. SPARQ: Scalable Privacy-preserving Aggregate Range Queries using Segment Trees. 2026.
5. Khaleque Md. Aashiq Kamal, Surya Teja Eada, Aayushi Verma, Subek Acharya, Adrian Yemin, Benjamin W. Fuller, and Kaleel Mahmood. Analyzing Physical Adversarial Example Threats to Machine Learning in Election Systems. 2026.

Teaching

Developed: Modern Cryptography: Foundations; Modern Cryptography: Primitives and Protocols; Cybersecurity Laboratory; Introduction to Network Security; Introduction to Computer Security.

Courses taught: Introduction to Discrete Mathematics; Cybersecurity Laboratory; Computer Security; Introduction to Network Security; Modern Cryptography; Senior Design Laboratory; Modern Cryptography II.

Boston University: Teaching assistant for Introduction to Network Security, Introduction to Cryptography, Computer Architecture, Calculus I, and Computer Organization, 2005–2015.

Advising

Advised doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate researchers in cryptography, biometrics, election security, error correction, searchable encryption, and privacy.

• Master’s theses include work on oblivious single access machines, adversarial machine learning and voting, Bayesian election audits, Reed–Solomon error correction, and efficient risk-limiting audits.
• Undergraduate research includes projects in election technology, privacy, cryptography, and computer security.

Awards, Media, and Outreach

• Election Verification Network Research Award for Adaptive Risk-Limiting Comparison Audits, 2023.
• UConn AAUP Early Career Teaching Excellence Award, 2021.
• Computer Science Research Excellence Award, Boston University.
• Rensselaer Medal Winner; Computer Science Scholar’s Award.
• Featured in UConn Today and NCITE for election-verification research; interviewed by NBC Connecticut on cybersecurity.

Service

Program committee and reviewer service includes CCS, USENIX Security, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, EUROCRYPT, CT-RSA, ASIACRYPT, ICITS, LatinCrypt, AsiaCCS, and related security and cryptography venues.

Additional service includes NSF Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace panel service, UConn Research Excellence Program reviewing, Upsilon Pi Epsilon faculty advising, Cybersecurity Club advising, and Connecticut Science Olympiad judging and event organization.

Prior Experience