Research Interests

• Computer and network security

• Network modeling and performance evaluation

Education

• Ph.D (2005)  Dept. Electrical & Computer Engineering, Univ. Massachusetts, Amherst

• M.S  (1999)  Dept. of Automation, University of Science & Technology of China (USTC)

• B.S  (1996)   Dept. of Automation, University of Science & Technology of China (USTC)

Teaching

• CDA 5530: Performance Models of Computers and Networks (Fall 2008)
  

• CNT 4704: Computer Communication Networks  (Fall 2005, Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008) 

• CAP6133: Advanced Topics in Computer Security and Forensics (Spring, 2008)

• CDA6938: Special topic - Research in Computer and Network Security (Spring 2006, Spring 2007) 

Students

• PhD:  Ping Wang, Baber Aslam, Lei Wu

• Part-time PhD: Sherri Sparks, Shawn Embleton (co-advised with Prof. Bassiouni) 
  

Funding

• NSF Cyber Trust CNS-0627318: "Collaborative Research: CT-ISG: Modeling and Measuring Botnets" (PI, 100% share, 2006-2009, $175,000, in collaboration with Dr. Wenke Lee from Georgia Tech). 

• Intel Research Fund on vulnerability analysis and hardware validation (PI, 100% share, 08/2007-08/2010, $53,465)

Publications

        Book Chapter

• Soyoung Park, Damla Turgut, Cliff C. Zou. "Reliable Traffic Information Propagation in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks", Security in Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks, to be published by World Scientific Publishing, Inc.
• Sherri Sparks, Shawn Embleton, Cliff C. Zou. "Windows Rootkits - a Game of "Hide and Seek", Handbook on Security and Networks,to be published by World Scientific Publishing Inc., 2009.
  

        Referred Journal

• Ping Wang, Sherri Sparks, Cliff C. Zou. "An Advanced Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Botnet", to appear in IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing. (Extended from workshop paper in HotBots'07)
  

• Cliff C. Zou, Don Towsley, Weibo Gong. "Modeling and Simulation Study of the Propagation and Defense of Internet Email Worm," IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 4(2), p.105-118, April-June 2007. (Extended from conference paper in ICCCN'04)

• Cliff C. Zou, Nick Duffield, Don Towsley, Weibo Gong. "Adaptive Defense Against Various Network Attacks," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications: High-Speed Network Security (J-SAC), 24(10), p.1877-1888, October 2006.  (Acceptance ratio: 14/70= 20%, extended from workshop paper in SRUTI'05)

• Cliff C. Zou, Don Towsley, and Weibo Gong. "On the Performance of Internet Worm Scanning Strategies," Elsevier Journal of Performance Evaluation, 63(7), p.700-723, July 2006.

• Cliff C. Zou, Don Towsley, Weibo Gong, Songlin Cai. "Advanced Routing Worm and Its Security Challenges," Simulation: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International, 82(1), p.75-85, 2006. (Extended from workshop paper in PADS'05)

• Cliff C. Zou, Weibo Gong, Don Towsley, and Lixin Gao. "The Monitoring and Early Detection of Internet Worms," IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 13(5), p.961-974, October 2005. (Extended from conference paper in CCS'03)
   

         Referred conferences and workshops

• Baber Aslam, Ping Wang, Cliff C. Zou. "An Economical, Deployable and Secure Vehicular Ad hoc Network", to appear in Proceedings of IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM'08), San Diego, November 17-19, 2008.
  
• Shawn Embleton, Sherri Sparks, Cliff C. Zou. "SMM Rootkits:  A New Breed of OS Independent Malware", to appear in 4th International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm), Istanbul, Turkey, Sept. 22-25, 2008. (full paper, Acceptance ratio: 26/123=21%)
  
• Soyoung Park, Cliff C. Zou. "Reliable Traffic Information Propagation in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks," IEEE Sarnoff Symposium, Apr. 28-30, NJ, 2008 (invited paper).
  

• Sherri Sparks, Ryan Cunningham, Shawn Embleton, Cliff C. Zou. "Automated Vulnerability Analysis: Leveraging Control Flow for Evolutionary Input Crafting", in 23rd Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), p.477-486, Miami Beach, Florida, Dec. 10-14, 2007. (acceptance ratio: 40/191=21%) Best Student Paper Award

• Jerome Harrington, Corey Kuwanoe, Cliff C. Zou. "A BitTorrent-Driven Distributed Denial-of-Service Attack", 3^rd International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm), Nice, France, Sept. 17-20, 2007. (Acceptance ratio 26%=31/119)

• Ping Wang, Sherri Sparks, and Cliff C. Zou, "An Advanced Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Botnet", USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Understanding Botnets (HotBots'07), Cambridge, MA, April 10th, 2007. (acceptance ratio: 11/32=34.4%) 

• Jingfei Kong, Cliff C. Zou, and Huiyang Zhou, "Improving Software Security via Runtime Instruction-Level Taint Checking", Workshop on Architectural and System Support for Improving Software Dependability (ASID) held with 12th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Sytems (ASPLOS-XII), p.18-24,San Jose, CA, October, 2006.

• Cliff C. Zou and Ryan Cunningham. "Honeypot-Aware Advanced Botnet Construction and Maintenance," in the International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), June 25-28, p.199-208, Philadelphia, 2006 (Acceptance ratio: 34/187=18.2%).

• David Dagon, Cliff C. Zou, and Wenke Lee. "Modeling Botnet Propagation Using Time Zones," in 13th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), p.235-249, Feb. 2-4, San Diego, 2006 (Acceptance ratio: 17/127=13.4%).

• Cliff C. Zou, Nick Duffield, Don Towsley, and Weibo Gong. "Adaptive Defense Against Various Network Attacks," in SRUTI: Steps to Reducing Unwanted Traffic on the Internet, p.69-75, July 7-8, Boston 2005 (Acceptance ratio: 13/35=37.1%).

• Cliff C. Zou, Don Towsley, Weibo Gong, and Songlin Cai. "Routing Worm: A Fast, Selective Attack Worm based on IP Address Information," 19th ACM/IEEE/SCS Workshop on Principles of Advanced and Distributed Simulation (PADS'05), p.199-206, June 1-3, Monterey, 2005 (Best Paper Award Runner-up, Acceptance ratio: 22/46=48%).

• Cliff C. Zou, Don Towsley, and Weibo Gong. "Email Worm Modeling and Defense," 13th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN'04), p.409-414, Oct. 11-13, Chicago, USA, 2004 (Best Paper Award Runner-up, Acceptance ratio: 73/207=35.3%).

• Cliff C. Zou, Weibo Gong, and Don Towsley. "Worm Propagation Modeling and Analysis under Dynamic Quarantine Defense," ACM CCS Workshop on Rapid Malcode (WORM'03), p.51-60, Oct. 27, Washington DC, USA, 2003 (Acceptance ratio: 10/25=40%).

• Cliff C. Zou, Lixin Gao, Weibo Gong, and Don Towsley. "Monitoring and Early Warning for Internet Worms," 10th ACM Conference on Computer and Communication Security (CCS'03), p.190-199, Oct. 27-31, Washington DC, USA, 2003 (Acceptance ratio: 35/253=13.8%).

• Cliff C. Zou, Weibo Gong, Don Towsley. "Code Red Worm Propagation Modeling and Analysis," 9th ACM Conference on Computer and Communication Security (CCS'02), p.138-147, Nov. 18-22, Washington DC, USA, 2002 (Acceptance ratio: 27/153=17.6%).

         Technical reports and other publications

• Cliff C. Zou. "PCB: Physically Changeable Bit for Preserving Privacy in Low-End RFID Tags," RFID Journal "RFID White Paper Library", May 2006.
•  Cliff C. Zou, Weibo Gong, and Don Towsley. "Feedback Email Worm Defense System for Enterprise Networks," Umass ECE Technical Report TR-04-CSE-05, April 2004. 
• Cliff C. Zou, Don Towsley, and Weibo Gong. "A Firewall Network System for Worm Defense in Enterprise Networks," Umass ECE Technical Report TR-04-CSE-01, February 2004. 
• Cassandras, C.G., C.G. Panayiotou, G. Diehl, W. Gong, Z. Liu, and C.C. Zou, "Clustering Methods for Multi-Resolution Simulation Modeling," Proceedings of SPIE's 14th Annual Internation Symposium on Aerospace/Defense Sensing, Simulation, and Control, Orlando, FL, April 24-28, 2000.
• Cliff C. Zou, Hongsheng Xi, Baoqun Yin, Yaping Zhou, and Demin Sun.  "Derivative Estimates Parallel Simulation Algorithm Based on Performance Potentials Theory,"  International Federation of Automatic Control Conference (IFAC), Jul. 5-9, Beijing, China, 1999.

Honors

• Best Student Paper Award in conference ACSAC 2007.
• The research work in NDSS'06 paper "Modeling Botnet Propagation Using Time Zones" was reported by the New Scientist Magazine, Mar. 4, 2006 189(2541), pg. 32.
• Best Paper Award runner-up in PADS 2005.
• Best Paper Award runner-up in ICCCN 2004.
• Interviewed by National Public Radio (NPR) on our research "dynamic quarantine of Internet worm" (by Correspondent Larry Abramson), September 2003.
• Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Massachusetts, 2000/2001.
• Graduate School Fellowship, University of Massachusetts, 1999/2000.
• "Guo Moruo" Scholarship, the highest scholarship in the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), 1996.

Professional Service

• Program Co-Chair: second IEEE LCN workshop on network security, 2006.

• Session Chair: WORM 2006,SecureComm 2008, Malware 2008.

• TPC Member: WORM 2006,GLOBECOM 2007, ICESS 2007, NPC 2008, PACCF 2008, SecureComm 2008, Malware 2008, NSS 2008, IWCMC 2009.
  

• Local Arrangement: ANCS 2007, ICNP 2008, UbiComp 2009.

Students graduated

MS:   Ryan Cunningham (continuing PhD in UIUC), Haiou Xiang