PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Denis Foo Kune

Denis Foo Kune is a security researcher whose work spans network security, medical devices, and responsible AI for foundation models. He coauthored a 2012 paper on GSM location leaks, completed a PhD at Minnesota, and worked with Kevin Fu at the University of Michigan. At Virta Laboratories, he led a machine-learning project that analyzed power-consumption signals for malware and anomaly detection; by December 2017, he was a principal security engineer at Mayo Clinic. In December 2024, he coauthored Amazon's account of responsible-AI methods for Nova, and in March 2025 he coauthored a report on the model family. As of October 2026, he is a senior security researcher in Artificial General Intelligence and Responsible AI at Amazon.

Now at
Amazon
Works
32
Citations
1,083
h-index
14
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2012

    GSM location leaks

    In 2012, he coauthors “Location Leaks on the GSM Air Interface” for the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium.

  2. 2012–2014

    Minnesota PhD and Michigan postdoc

    He completes a PhD at the University of Minnesota in 2012, working with Nick Hopper and Yongdae Kim. At the University of Michigan, he is a postdoctoral researcher with Kevin Fu from 2012 to 2014. In 2013, he coauthors “Ghost Talk: Mitigating EMI Signal Injection Attacks against Analog Sensors.”

  3. 2015–2016

    Machine learning for device security

    At Virta Laboratories, which he co-founds with Ben Ransford and Kevin Fu, he serves as principal investigator for its 2015 SBIR Phase I project on anomaly and malware detection. The project analyzes power-consumption side channels with a cloud machine-learning engine to monitor high-assurance devices.

  4. December 2017

    Security at Mayo Clinic

    In December 2017, he is a principal security engineer at Mayo Clinic and is scheduled to present at the Archimedes Medical Device Security 101 Conference in January 2018.

  5. December 2024

    Responsible AI in Amazon Nova

    In December 2024, he coauthors Amazon’s account of responsible-AI methods for the Nova model family, including reinforcement learning, supervised fine-tuning, guardrail models, and image watermarking.

  6. March 2025

    The Amazon Nova technical report

    In March 2025, he coauthors “The Amazon Nova Family of Models: Technical Report and Model Card,” which introduces the Nova foundation-model family and reports benchmarks and human-evaluation results.

  7. As of October 2026

    Security research in Amazon AGI

    As of October 2026, he is a senior security researcher in Artificial General Intelligence and Responsible AI at Amazon.

Career

  1. NowAmazonSenior security researcher
  2. From 2017Mayo ClinicPrincipal security engineer
  3. 2015–2016Virta LaboratoriesCo-founder, Principal investigator
  4. 2012–2014University of MichiganPostdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 2012University of MinnesotaPhD

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Ghost Talk: Mitigating EMI Signal Injection Attacks against Analog Sensors2013 · IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy · 279 citations
  2. SoK: Security and Privacy in Implantable Medical Devices and Body Area Networks2014 · IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy · 252 citations
  3. Losing control of the internet2010 · Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security · 81 citations
  4. Timing attacks on PIN input devices2010 · Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security · 62 citations
  5. Location leaks over the GSM air interface2012 · Network and Distributed System Security Symposium · 60 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

  1. 14% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Denis Foo Kune. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after their doctorate, and how the timing changed across cohorts.
  2. Google alumni founded or led 87 other organizations, the most among the labs we compareIncludes Amazon. We trace 212 organizations founded or led by AI lab alumni, and 223 career moves between the labs.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Amazon. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 32%Includes Amazon. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Denis Foo Kune yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Denis Foo Kune randombits.squarespace.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Nick Hopper - Advising sites.google.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Kevin Fu web.eecs.umich.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Ghost Talk: Mitigating EMI Signal Injection Attacks against Analog Sensors scholarcommons.sc.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. SBIR Phase I: Anomaly and malware detection using side channel analysis sbir.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Mayo Clinic’s Kevin McDonald on Improving Security in Healthcare secure-medicine.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Amazon Nova and our commitment to responsible AI - Amazon Science amazon.science. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. The Amazon Nova Family of Models: Technical Report and Model Card arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. iMAGiNE Consortium Symposium 2026 | Intelligent Machine Engineering Consortium imagine.utexas.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.