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 direct the Security and Analytics Lab (SEAL).

I am a Senior Member of ACM (since 2018) and IEEE (since 2015), a Distinguished Speaker of ACM (2021-2024; request) and Distinguished Visitor of IEEE's Computer Society (2021-2023; request).

More details are in my CV and statements (research, teaching, service, diversity efforts, impact).

Teaching: Fall 2021: Foundations of Computer Security. Office Hours: (Summer 2021): by appointment.

Doctoral Advisees

I am very proud of the talented current and past students I had the opportunity to work with (complete list)

• Ahmed Abusnaina, PhD candidate, computer science
• Sultan Alshamrani, PhD candidate, computer science
• Ulku Meteriz, PhD candidate, computer science
• Abdulrahman Alabduljabbar, PhD student, computer science
• Mohammed Alkinoon, PhD student, computer science
• Afsah Anwar (2021), postdoc at Northeastern University
• Muhammad Saad (2021), researcher at PayPal
• Rhongho Jang (2020), assistant professor at Wayne State University
• Mo Abuhamad (2020), assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago
• Jeman Park (2020), postdoc at Georgia Institute of Technology
• Jinchun Choi (2020), postdoc at Texas A&M University
• Hisham Alasmary (2020), assistant professor at King Khalid University
• Ashar Ahmad (2019), director of research at Clear Village Inc.
• Jeffrey Spaulding (2018), assistant professor at Canisius College

Selected Recent Talks

Selected Conference Publications

Also my DBLP and Google Scholar profiles for complete lists

• Revisiting Nakamoto Consensus in Asynchronous Networks, ACM CCS 2021
• ProMT: Optimizing Integrity Tree Updates for Write-Intensive Pages in Secure NVMs, ACM ICS 2021
• Root Cause Analyses for the Deteriorating Bitcoin Network Synchronization, IEEE ICDCS 2021
• 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
• SketchFlow: Per-Flow Systematic Sampling Using Sketch Saturation Event, 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

• Large-Scale and Robust Code Authorship Identification with Deep Feature Learning, ACM TOPS 2021
• deep learning-based fine-grained hierarchical learning for robust malware detection, IEEE TDSC, 2021
• e-PoS: making proof-of-stake decentralized and fair, IEEE TPDS 2021
• A one-page text entry method optimized for recentagle smartwatches, IEEE TMC 2021
• ShellCore: automating malicious IoT software detection using shell commands, IEEE IoT Journal, 2021
• Sensor-based continous authentication using behavioral biometrics, IEEE IoT Journal, 2021
• Emperically comparing the performance of blockchain's consensus algorithms, IET Blockchains, 2021
• SSD-Assisted ransomware detection and data recovery techniques, IEEE Transactions on Computers, 2021
• GraphShield: dynamic large graphs for secure queries with forward privacy, IEEE TKDE, 2020
• Characterizing Blockchains for Highly-Accurate Predictions, IEEE Sys. 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
• Exploring the Attack Surface of Blockchain: A Systematic Overview, IEEE CS&T, 2020
• AUToSen: Deep Learning-based Implicit Continuous Authentication, IEEE IoT Journal, 2020

Teaching

• Fall 2021: CAP 5150 - Foundations of Computer Security and Privacy
• Spring 2021: CAP 6640 - Computer Understanding of Natural Language
• Spring 2021: CAP 5150 - Foundations of Computer Security and Privacy
• Spring 2020: CAP 6640 - Computer Understanding of Natural Language
• Spring 2020: CAP 5150 - Foundations of Computer Security and Privacy
• Spring 2019: CAP 6640 - Computer Understanding of Natural Language
• Spring 2019: CIS 4361 - Secure Operating Systems and Administration
• Fall 2018: CIS 4615 - Secure Software Development and Assurance
• Spring 2018: CAP 6133 - Advanced Topics in Computer Security and Computer Forensics
• Fall 2017: CIS 4615 - Secure Software Development and Assurance

Service

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. More details on my other services are shown here.

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