Cliff C. Zou  (Changchun Zou) Associate Professor Data Systems Group Computer Science Division Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science University of Central Florida 4000 Central Florida Blvd., HEC-243 Orlando, FL 32816-2362 　 Email:  czou@cs.ucf.edu Tel:       407-823-5015 Fax:       407-823-5835

Research Interests

• Computer and network security

• Computer networking
  

• 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)

• May  2013: I received UCF Teaching Incentive Program (UCF-TIP) Award.
  
• May  2012: Baber Aslam is my second PhD graduated. Congratulation!
  
• Jun. 2011: I got my tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor.
  
• Dec. 2010: Ping Wang is the first PhD in my group graduated and will work in Symantec Inc. in Lake Mary, FL. Congratulation!
  
• Mar. 2010: Undergraduate research project "Personal Medication Monitor" won the first price in the first annual UCF Inventing Entrepreneurs Innovation Competition (UCF News). 
  
• Mar. 2010: The Register and EurekAlert! News Service reported our honeypot detection research, respectively.
• Mar. 2010: I provided comments about botnet attack on WDBO-AM Radio news broadcasted on 03/02/2010. Here is the audio.
  
• Sep. 2009: My Internship research work in AT&T finally got US Patent 7587761.
• Oct. 2009: Paper in Milcom'09 was reported by conference preview article published in IEEE communication magazine, October 2009, page 22.
  
• May  2008: The SMM rootkit work (paper published in Securecomm'08) was reported by PCWorld  (05/09/2008).
  
• Dec. 2007: Best Student Paper Award in conference ACSAC 2007.
• Mar. 2006: The research work in conference NDSS'06 paper "Modeling Botnet Propagation Using Time Zones" was reported by the New Scientist Magazine, Mar. 4, 2006 189(2541), pg. 32.
  

Funding

• NSF REU supplement for CNS-0627318 ($16,000, 09/2009-08/2010).
  

• 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).

• UCF in-house grant (PI, 100% share, 05/2006-04/2007, $7,500).

Publications (Google Scholar Citation)

     Book Chapter

• 
  
• Park, S., C. Zou, and D. Turgut, "Reliable Traffic Information Propagation in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks," in R. Beyah, J. McNair, and C. Corbett (Eds): Security in Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks, Chapter 9, World Scientific Press, 2009, pp. 261-291.
• Ping Wang, Baber Aslam, Cliff C. Zou, "Peer-to-Peer Botnets", in Stavroulakis, Peter; Stamp, Mark (Eds): Handbook of Information and Communication Security, Chapter 18, Springer Press, 2010, pp. 335-350.
• Sherri Sparks, Shawn Embleton, Cliff C. Zou. "Windows Rootkits - a Game of 'Hide and Seek'," in Y. Xiao, F.H. Li, and H. Chen (Eds): Handbook of Security and Networks, Chapter 14, pp.345-369, World Scientific Publishing Co., ISBN-10: 9814273031, ISBN-13: 978-9814273039, 2011.
  

     Referred Journal

• Erich Dondyk, Louis F. Rivera, Cliff C. Zou, "Wi-Fi Access Denial of Service Attack to Smartphones", to appear in International Journal of Security and Networks (IJSN), 2013.
  
• Baber Aslam, Ping Wang, Cliff Zou, "Extension of Internet Access to VANET via Satellite Receive-only Terminals", to appear in International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing (IJAHUC), 2013.
  
• Soyoung Park, Baber Aslam, Damla Turgut, Cliff C. Zou, "Defense against Sybil Attack in the Initial Deployment Stage of Vehicular Ad hoc Network based on Roadside Unit Support", to appear in Wiley Journal of Security and Communication Networks, 2012.
• Corey McCall, Branden Maynes, Cliff C. Zou, Ning Zhang. "An Automatic Medication Self-Management and Monitoring System for Independently Living Patients",to appear in Elsevier Journal of Medical Engineering & Physics, 2012. 
• Lei Wu, Jerome Harrington, Corey Kuwanoe, Cliff C. Zou, "Harnessing the Power of BitTorrent for Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks", Wiley Journal of Security and Communication Networks, 4(8), p.860-870, 2011.
• Shawn Embleton, Sherri Sparks, Cliff C. Zou, "SMM Rootkit: A New Breed of OS Independent Malware", to appear in Wiley Journal of Security and Communication Networks.
  
• Baber Aslam, Soyoung Park, Cliff Zou, and Damla Turgut. "Secure Traffic Data Propagation in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks", International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing (IJAHUC), 6(1), p.24-39, 2010.
  
• Ping Wang, Lei Wu, Ryan Cunningham, Cliff C. Zou. "Honeypot Detection in Advanced Botnet Attacks", International Journal of Information and Computer Security (IJICS), 4(1), p.30-51, 2010.
  
• Ping Wang, Sherri Sparks, Cliff C. Zou. "An Advanced Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Botnet", IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 7(2), 113-127, April-June,2010. 

• 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.

• 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%)

• 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.

• 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.
  
  

      Referred conferences and workshops

• Erich Dondyk, Cliff C. Zou, "Denial of Convenience Attack to Smartphones Using a Fake Wi-Fi Access Point," in 10th Annual IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, Jan. 11-14, 2013. (Acceptance ratio: 94/313 = 30.0%)
• Faisal Amjad, Baber Aslam, Cliff C. Zou, "Transparent Cross-Layer Solutions for Throughput Boost in Cognitive Radio Networks," in 10th Annual IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, Jan. 11-14, 2013. (Acceptance ratio: 94/313 = 30.0%)
• Rung-Ching Chen, Wei-Lung Chang, Chia-Fen Shieh, Cliff C. Zou, "Using Hybrid Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm to Extend Wireless Sensor Network Lifetime", Third International Conference on Innovations in Bio-Inspired Computing and Applications (IBICA), pp. 156-161, 2012.
  
• Steven Zittrower, Cliff C. Zou, "Encrypted Phrase Searching in the Cloud", IEEE GLOBECOM,Dec. 3-7, 2012.
  
• Baber Aslam, Faisal M. Amjad, Cliff C. Zou, "Optimal Roadside Units Placement in Urban Areas for Vehicular Networks", in 17th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), Turkey, July 1-4, 2012.
  
• Jim Bardgett, Cliff C. Zou, "nSwitching: Virtual Machine Aware Relay Hardware Switching to improve intra-NIC Virtual Machine Traffic", in IEEE International Conference on Communications, (ICC),Ottawa, Canada,Jun. 10-15, 2012.
  
• Huy D. Truong, Christopher F. Turner, Cliff C. Zou, "iCAPTCHA: The Next Generation of CAPTCHA Designed to Defend Against 3rd Party Human Attacks", in IEEE International Conference on Communications, (ICC), Kyoto, Japan, Jun. 5-9, 2011.
  
• Soyoung Park, Baber Aslam, Cliff C. Zou, "Long-term Reputation System for Vehicular Networking based on Vehicle's Daily Commute Routine", in 8th Annual IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, Jan. 9-12, 2011. (Acceptance ratio: 95/305 = 31.1%)
  
• Baber Aslam, Cliff C. Zou, "One-way-linkable Blind Signature Security Architecture for VANET", in 8th Annual IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, Jan. 9-12, 2011. (Acceptance ratio: 95/305 = 31.1%)
• Corey McCall, Branden Maynes, Cliff C. Zou, Ning Zhang. "RMAIS: RFID-based Medication Adherence Intelligence System", in 32nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug.31 - Sept. 4, 2010.
  
• Baber Aslam, Lei Wu and Cliff C. Zou. "PwdIP-Hash: A Lightweight Solution to Phishing and Pharming Attacks", to appear in IEEE  International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA), 15-17 July, 2010 (6-page short paper).
  
• Peter Matthews, Andrew Mantel, Cliff C. Zou. "Scene Tagging: Image-Based CAPTCHA Using Image Composition and Object Relationships",in Proceedings of ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS),p. 345-350, Beijing,China, 13-16 Apr. 2010. (6-page short paper, acceptance ratio: 38/166=23%)
• Baber Aslam, Cliff C. Zou. "Distributed Certificate and Application Architecture for VANETs", IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM'09), Boston, Oct. 18-21, 2009.
  
• Soyoung Park, Baber Aslam, Damla Turgut, Cliff C. Zou. "Defense against Sybil Attack in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network based On Roadside Units Support", IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM'09), Boston, Oct. 18-21, 2009.
• Baber Aslam, Ping Wang, Cliff C. Zou. "Pervasive Internet Access by Vehicles through Satellite Receive-only Terminals", International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN), San Francisco,Aug. 2-6, 2009.(Acceptance ratio: 114/387 = 29.5%)
  
• Ping Wang, Lei Wu, Baber Aslam, Cliff C. Zou. "A Systematic Study on Peer-to-Peer Botnets", International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN), San Francisco,Aug. 2-6, 2009.(Acceptance ratio: 114/387 = 29.5%)
• Sherri Sparks, Shawn Ambleton, Cliff C. Zou. "A Chipset Level Network Backdoor: Bypassing Host-Based Firewall & IDS", Proceedings of ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS), Sydney, Australia, 10-12 Mar 2009. (full paper, acceptance ratio: 33/147 = 22.5%)
  
• Baber Aslam, Ping Wang, Cliff C. Zou. "An Economical, Deployable and Secure Vehicular Ad hoc Network", 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", in Proceedings of 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.

Patent

• 7587761: Adaptive Defense Against Various Network Attacks, September 8, 2009.
  

Professional Service

• Senior Member of IEEE (2010); Member of ACM.
• NSF panel, 2011.
  
• Editorial Board Member: International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing (IJAHUC), Wiley Journal of Security and Communication Networks (SCN).
  

• Program Co-Chair: IEEE LCN workshop on network security 2006, International Conference on Malicious and Unwanted Software (Malware) 2010, IEEE International Workshop on Cyberspace Safety and Security (CSS) 2011.
  

• Session Chair: WORM 2006,SecureComm 2008, Malware 2008, AsiaCCS 2010, CCNC 2013.
  

• Technical Program Committee Member:

2014: ICDCN,
2013: NSS,GLOBECOM,WoWMoM,STA, ICC,DCNET,TrustCom,FutureTech, INTERNET,         
2012: ICC,WoWMoM,DCNET,NPC,STA,GLOBECOM, INTERNET, Future Tech, Malware,ICCVE   
2011: Malware, SecureComm, Trustcom, CSA,DCNET, WoWMoM, ICCCN, GLOBECOM, STA
2010: STA, ICPADS, Milcom, MMM-ACNS, Trustcom, IWCMC, ICC,NSS
2009: IWCMC, CHINACOM, NSS, PACCF , SecureComm, Malware
2008: SecureComm, NSS, Malware
2007: GLOBECOM, ICESS,
2006: WORM

• Local Arrangement: ANCS 2007, ICNP 2008, UbiComp 2009, Multimedia 2014.

Honors

• UCF-Teaching Incentive Program (UCF-TIP) Award, May 2013.
  
• Undergraduate research project "Personal Medication Monitor" won the first price in the first annual UCF Inventing Entrepreneurs Innovation Competition in March 2010 (UCF News).
  
• Paper "Honeypot detection in advanced botnet attacks" published in International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 4(1),30-51,2010 was reported by EurekAlert! News Service and The Register, respectively.
  
• Paper in Milcom'09 reported by a conference preview article published in IEEE communication magazine, October 2009, page 22.
  
• The SMM rootkit work (paper published in Securecomm'08) was reported by PCWorld (05/09/2008).
  
• 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.
• The paper in conference CCS’02 was ranked 112th among the top 200 "most cited articles in Computer Science published in 2002 - generated in September 2006" according to CiteSeer.Continuity database.
  
• The paper in conference CCS’03 was ranked 151st among the top 200 "most cited articles in Computer Science published in 2003 - generated in September 2006" according to CiteSeer.Continuity database.
  
• 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.

Teaching

• CAP 6135: Malware and Software Vulnerability Analysis (Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013)
• CDA 6530: Performance Models of Computers and Networks (Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012)
• CNT 4704: Analysis of Computer Communication Networks  (Fall 2005, Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012)
  
• CNT 3004: Computer Network Concept (Spring 2011, Summer 2012)
• CIS 3360: Security in Computing (Spring 2012)
  
• CDA 5530: Performance Models of Computers and Networks (Fall 2008, Fall 2009) 
• CAP 6133: Advanced Topics in Computer Security and Forensics (Spring, 2008)
• CDA 6938: Special topic - Research in Computer and Network Security (Spring 2006, Spring 2007) 

Current Students

• Faisal Amjad, Steven Zittrower, Erich Dondyk, Roberto Alberdeston, Omar Hachum, Afraa Attiah
  

Graduated Students

BS (Honors in the Major with a research thesis): 
      Erich Dondyk (graduated in May 2012), thesis: "Denial of Convenience Attack to Smartphones Using a Fake Wi-Fi Access Point"
      Corey McCall (graduated in December 2010), thesis: "A System that Implements Automatic Medication Management and Passive Remote Monitoring to Enable Independent Living of Healthcare Patients"

MS:  
      Haiou Xiang (graduated in August 2007), thesis: "Bluetooth-based Worm Modeling and Simulation"
PhD: 
      Baber Aslam (graduated in May 2012), Assistant Professor at National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan. Dissertation: "Networking and Security Solutions for VANET Initial Deployment Stage"
      Ping Wang (graduated in December 2010, working in Symantec Inc., Lake Mary, FL), dissertation: "The Next Generation Botnet Attacks And Defenses"