I am an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. My research focus is computer security and online privacy, including applied machine learning^[1][2], DDoS attacks and defeses^[3][4], blockchain systems and their security^[5][6], software analysis and security^[7][8], critical infrastructure security^[9][10], IoT security^[11][12], and wearables security^[13][14]. I obtained my PhD from the University of Minnesota, working with Yongdae Kim (advisor) and Nick Hopper. At UCF, I run the Security and Analytics Lab (SEAL).

I am a Senior Member of ACM (since 2018) and IEEE (since 2015), a Distinguished Speaker of ACM (2021-2023) and Distinguished Visitor of IEEE's Computer Society (2021-2023).

Teaching: Spring 2021: Foundations of Computer Security. Computer Understanding of Natural Language.

Office Hours: (Spring 2021): Tuesday and Thursday (2:00pm-3:00pm) or by appointment.

Current Service. I am currently serving on the PC of ACM WiSec 2021, PETS 2021, and IEEE ICDCS 2021 (co-chair of the Blockchain track) -- submit your work. I am also the vice chair of the IEEEE Technical Committee on the Internet (TCI). I am also an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Elsevier Computer Networks, and ETRI Journal (Wiley). Previously, I served on ACM CoNEXT 2019 (general chair), SecureComm 2019 (PC chair), ISOC NDSS, PETS, ACM MobiSys, WiSec, ACM AsiaCCS, IEEE INFOCOM, ICDCS, CNS, WWW, etc.

Openings. I am looking for three PhD students to join my group (Fall 2021 or Spring 2022). The ideal candidate must have some working experience and demonestrate a solid understanding of one of the following: deep/machine learning algorithms, distributed systems security, IoT/AR security, and software systems security. Send me a brief email with your CV and any information that might be relevant if interested.

Recent Doctoral Advisees

I am proud of the talented students I have had the privilege of working with, including my doctoral advisees:

• Rhongho Jang (2020), Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at Wayne State University
• Mo Abuhamad (2020), Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago
• Jeman Park (2020), Postdctoral Researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology
• Jinchun Choi (2020), Postdoctoral Researcher at Texas A&M University
• Hisham Alasmary (2020), Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at King Khalid University
• Ashar Ahmad (2019), Director of Research at Clear Village Inc.
• Jeffrey Spaulding (2018), Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at Canisius College

Selected Conference Publications

• Multi-χ: Identifying Multiple Authors from Source Code Files, PoPETs/PETS 2020
• Detecting Adversarial Examples in Control Flow Graph-based Malware Classifiers, IEEE ICDCS 2020
• Adversarial Learning-based Approach to Defend Against Website Fingerprinting, IEEE INFOCOM 2020
• Exploring Spatial, Temporal, and Logical Attacks on the Bitcoin Network, IEEE ICDCS 2019
• Mempool Optimization for Defending Against DDoS Attacks in PoW-based Blockchains, IEEE ICBC 2019
• Where Are You Taking Me? Behavioral Analysis of Open DNS Resolvers , IEEE DSN 2019
• Large-Scale and Language-Oblivious Code Authorship Identification, ACM CCS 2018
• ABC: Enabling Smartphone Authentication with Built-in Camera, ISOC NDSS 2018
• ShmCaffe: A Distributed Deep Learning Platform with Shared Memory, IEEE ICDCS 2018
• Defending Against Voice Impersonation Attacks on Smartphones, IEEE ICDCS 2017. Best Paper Award
• Large-scale Invisible Attack on AFC Systems with NFC-equipped Smartphones, IEEE INFOCOM 2017
• Uncovering game bots in MMORPGs via self-similarity in the wild, ISOC NDSS 2016
• Delving into Internet DDoS Attacks by Botnets: Characterization and Analysis, IEEE DSN 2015
• Measuring Botnets in the Wild: Some New Trends, ACM AsiaCCS 2015
• Revealing DDoS Attack Dynamics behind the Scenes, DIMVA 2015
• Measuring Domain Forwarding and Applications at the Internet Scale, ACM IMC 2014
• Measuring the Leakage of Onion at the Root, ACM WPES 2014
• AV-Meter: An Evaluation of Antivirus Scans and Labels, DIMVA 2014
• Protecting Access Privacy of Cached Contents in Information Centric Networks, ACM ASIACCS 2013
• Dynamix: Anonymity on Dynamic Social Structures, ACM ASIACCS 2013
• On the Mixing Time of Directed Social Graphs and Security Implications, ACM ASIACCS 2012
• Losing control of the Internet: Using the data plane to attack the control plane, ISOC NDSS 2011
• Measuring the mixing time of social graphs, ACM IMC 2010

Recent Journal Publications

• Characterizing Blockchains for Highly-Accurate Predictions, IEEE Systems Journal, 2020. Best Paper Award
• 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 TDSC, 2020
• Low-Cost Mechanisms to Restoration of Encrypted Non-Volatile Memories, IEEE TDSC, 2020
• Rogue Access Point Detection Using Intentional Channel Interference, IEEE TMC, 2020
• SSD-assisted Ransomware Detection and Data Recovery Techniques, IEEE TC, 2020
• Exploring the Attack Surface of Blockchain: A Systematic Overview, IEEE CS&T, 2020
• AUToSen: Deep Learning-based Implicit Continuous Authentication, IEEE IoT Journal, 2020

Published in top conferences such as CCS, NDSS, PETS, IMC, DSN, ICDCS, INFOCOM, DIMVA, and AsiaCCS, and archival journals, such as IEEE TDSC, TMC, TNET, and IoT Journal, our work was awarded several best paper awards, including IEEE Systems Journal 2020, IEEE DSC 2019, ACM DLoT 2018, IEEE ICDCS 2017, WISA 2014 (DBLP, Google Scholar). I received a Faculty Fellowship from the US AFOSR (2016).

Sponsors: Supported by NSF, NRF, AFRL, AFOSR, NVIDIA and CyberFlorida, etc. NSF CNS-180900

Outreach: K-12 STEM Day, Fox 35 (Available for media stories via UCF Communications)

Trivia: Up until late 2019, I went by Aziz. I enjoy endurance running

Contact: HPA2-240, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816, USA. last_name@ucf.edu