
I am a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. My research is in systems, security, and privacy. My recent research addressed various questions related to ML/AI, malware analysis, web systems, IoT, wearables, and blockchains. I obtained my PhD from the University of Minnesota, in 2012. I spent seven years (in total) before and after attending Minnesota in the research and development industry. At UCF, I direct the Security and Analytics Lab (SEAL), where I have been fortunate to work with several talented graduate and undergraduate students.
Current Research Interests
- Network security: NDSS 2023, CCS 2022, DSN 2022, INFOCOM 2020, DSN 2019, ICDCS 2019
- Blockchains security: IEEE S&P 2023, ACM CCS 2021, ACM CCS 2021 (b), ICDCS 2021, ICDCS 2019
- Wearable security and privacy: IEEE VR 2022, CHI 2022, WPES 2021, ICDCS 2020, NDSS 2018
- ML/software security: RAID 2022, ICCV 2021, WPES 2021, PETS 2020, ICDCS 2020, CCS 2018
Selected Recent Publications
Also see my DBLP and Google Scholar profiles for complete lists- S&P 2023: Three Birds with One Stone: Efficient Partitioning of Interdependent Networks
- NDSS 2023: A Robust Counting Sketch for Data Plane Intrusion Detection
- CCS 2022: A Scalable and Dynamic ACL System for In-Network Defense
- VR 2022: A Keylogging Inference Attack on Air-Tapping Keyboards [Best Paper Candidate]
- HPCA 2022: Filesystem Encryption or Direct-Access for NVM Filesystems? Let’s Have Both
- IEEE DSN 2022: Minimizing Noise in HyperLogLog-Based Spread Estimation of Multiple Flows
- ACM RAID 2022: Systematically Evaluating the Robustness of ML-based Malware Detection Systems
- CCS 2021: Revisiting Nakamoto Consensus in Asynchronous Networks
- CCS 2021: SyncAttack: Double-spending in Bitcoin Without Mining Power
- ICS 2021: Optimizing Integrity Tree Updates for Secure NVMs [Best Paper Candidate]
- ICCV 2021: Adversarial Example Detection Using Latent Neighborhood Graph
Recent Journal Publications
- IEEE TDSC 2022 Deep learning-based fine-grained hierarchical learning for robust malware detection
- IEEE TDSC 2022 Cleaning the NVD: Comprehensive Quality Assessment, Improvements, and Analyses
- IEEE TDSC 2020 A Data-Driven Study of DDoS Attacks and Their Dynamics
- IEEE TDSC 2020 Look-aside At Your Own Risk: Privacy Implications of DNSSEC Look-aside Validation
- IEEE IoT Journal 2022 ShellCore: automating malicious IoT software detection using shell commands
- IEEE IoT Journal 2020 AUToSen: Deep Learning-based Implicit Continuous Authentication
- IEEE/ACM TNET 2022 A Large-Scale Behavioral Analysis of the Open DNS Resolvers
- IEEE/ACM TNET 2022 Exploring Partitioning Attacks on the Bitcoin Network
- IEEE TMC 2022 Learning Location from Shared Elevation Profiles in Fitness Apps
- IEEE TMC 2020 Rogue Access Point Detection Using Intentional Channel Interference
- ACM TOPS 2021 Large-Scale and Robust Code Authorship Identification with Deep Feature Learning
Recent Honors (and Awards)
- 2022 UCF Teaching Incentive Award for Excellence in Teaching
- 2022 UCF Research Incentive Award for Excellence in Research
- 2022 CECS Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award
- Best Paper Award Nomineee of IEEE VR 2022
- Best Extended Abstract Award of IEEE DSN 2021
- Best Student Paper Award Nomineee of ACM ICS 2021
- Distiniguished TPC member of IEEE INFOCOM (2016-2021)
- Best Paper Award of IEEE Systems Journal (2020)
Recent Teaching
- [F'2022] CAP 5150: Computer Security and Privacy (Sample Projects)
- [F'2021] CAP 5150: Computer Security and Privacy
- [S'2021] CAP 6640: Natural Language Processing
- [S'2021] CAP 5150: Computer Security and Privacy
- [S'2020] CAP 6640: Natural Language Processing
- [S'2020] CAP 5150: Computer Security and Privacy
- [S'2019] CAP 6640: Natural Language Processing
- [S'2019] CIS 4361: Secure Operating Systems
- [F'2018] CIS 4615: Secure Software Development
- [S'2018] CAP 6133: Computer Security and Computer Forensics
- [F'2017] CIS 4615: Secure Software Development
Current Services: TPC: WWW 2023, IEEE S&P 2023.
Current Doctoral Advisees(1)
- Mohammed Alkinoon (CS)
- Soohyeon Choi (CS)
- Hattan Althebeiti (ECE, SACM Fellow)
- Ayodeji Adeniran (MST), part-time, self-funded
- Mohamed Alqadhi (CS, SACM Fellow)
- Ali Alkinoon (CS, ORC Fellow)
- Jie Li (CS)
- Aziz Alghamdi (ECE, SACM Fellow)
Graduated Doctoral Advisees(2)
- Jeff Spaulding (2018) → Lead Engineer, Booz Allen
- Ashar Ahmad (2019) → Clear Village Inc.
- Mo Abuhamad (2020) → Asst Prof, Loyola Chicago
- Hisham Alasmary (2020) → Asst Prof, King Khalid U
- Rhongho Jang (2020) → Asst Prof, Wayne State
- Jeman Park (2020) → Scientist, Georgia Tech
- Jinchun Choi (2020) → Sr Researcher, ETRI
- Afsah Anwar (2021) → Asst Prof, Florida A&M
- Sultan Alshamrani (2021) → Asst Prof, Saudi Elec. U
- Muhammad Saad (2021) → Sr Scientist, PayPal
- Ahmed Abusnaina (2022) → Scientist, Facebook
- Ülkü Meteriz-Yıldıran (2022) → Scientist, Facebook
- A. Alabduljabbar (2022) → Asst Prof/Chair, PSAU
Contact: HPA2-240, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816, USA. mohaisen@ucf.edu