Primary Job Title Founder and CEO Primary Organization Red Balloon Security
Location New York, New York, United States Regions Greater New York Area, East Coast, Northeastern US Gender Male
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Cui is the founder, CEO and chief scientist of Red Balloon Security, a leading developer of embedded device security solutions.
Prior to launching Red Balloon Security, Cui was a prominent security researcher at Columbia University’s Intrusion Detection Systems Lab where he exposed serious vulnerabilities in many widely used commercial products,
including IP phones, laser jet printers, routers and networked appliances. His research culminated in the development of Symbiote, an OS agnostic intrusion defense technology which protects embedded devices at the firmware level by blocking unauthorized code and commands from being executed. This patented technology is currently deployed in HP LaserJet printers. Cui’s company has also secured multiple U.S. government contracts to study Symbiote’s effectiveness in military, national security and industrial applications. In 2017, Symbiote for Automotive Defense was announced at the ESCAR Conference.
In addition to Symbiote, Cui has developed several other security technologies, including FRAK (firmware vulnerability analysis), Funtenna (covert data exfiltration) and Badfet (secure boot bypass using a targeted electromagnetic pulse).
Cui’s research has earned numerous awards and distinctions, including the 2011 Kaspersky Labs American Cup Winner, 2012 Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship, 2015 DARPA Riser and 2017 U.S. Department of Homeland Security “Crossing the Valley of Death” award.
Cui holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Columbia University, as well as a Master of Philosophy and a Master of Science in computer science from the same university.
