About Me

Welcome to my website! You might be interested in my background and experiences, so I below present my CV. You can also find a PDF version here (Last Update: Sep/2023)

Announcements

I have started a new position at CSE@TAMU. I’m looking for new Ph.D., Masters, and undergraduate students! Check the research ideas and prospective students page

New grant on hardware-assisted malware detection. Check it here TAMU News

Looking for a brief overview of my research? Check these slides

I will teach my cybersecurity course under the data science umbrella this Fall. Please, enroll into CSCE 704-602. My approach will be similar to what I did in previous semesters.

Education

  • PhD in Computer Science, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR-Brazil), 2021
  • MSc in Computer Science, University of Campinas (UNICAMP-Brazil), 2017
  • BS in Computer Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP-Brazil), 2015
    • Final Project: “Malware detection via syscall patterns identification”

Employment

  • Texas A&M University (TAMU), USA
    • 2024-TBD: Assistant Professor
    • 2022-2024: Visiting Assistant Professor
  • Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Brazil
    • 2021/2: Lecturer
      • Programming 101 (Undergrad, Engineering)
    • 2021/2: External Professor
      • Computational Infrastructure (Graduate, Big Data Specialization)

Other Professional Activities

  • CYMDALL, Israel
    • 2023 - Scientific Advisory Board Member
      • Development of a hardware-assisted malware detection endpoint.
  • AppThreat - UK
    • 2023 - Scientific Advisory Board Member
      • Development of open-source security solutions.

Currently Advised Students (At TAMU): 16

  • Seyyed Ali Ayati
    • PhD - (2023/10-In Progress)
  • Soumyajyoti Dutta
    • PhD - (2024-In Progress)
    • MSc - Project-Based (2023/5-2023/12)
  • Eden Garza
    • PhD - (2024/Fall-In Progress)
  • Mabon Ninan
    • PhD - (2024/Fall-In Progress)
  • Nhat Nguyen
    • MSc Thesis - (2024/Summer - In Progress)
  • Bhavan Dondapati
    • MSc - Project-Based (2023/8-In Progress)
  • Manoj Reddy Gurram
    • MSc - Project-Based (2023/8-In Progress)
  • Akshat Punjabi
    • MSc - Project-Based (2023/10-In Progress)
  • Sahil Salunkhe
    • MSc - Volunteer Project-Based (2023/8-In Progress)
  • Mohina Ahmadi
    • MSc - Volunteer Summer Internship (2024/Summer)
  • John Ammon
    • Undergrad - Project-based (2023/5-In Progress)
    • NSF REU
  • George Demetriou
    • Summer Internship - Halliburton Program - (2024/Summer)
  • Shrey Joshi
    • Summer Internship - Halliburton Program - (2024/Summer)
  • Jayesh Tripathi
    • Alumni Project (2024/4-In Progress)
  • Rohan Dalvi
    • Alumni Project (2024/4-In Progress)
  • Snehith Bikumandla
    • Alumni Project (2024/7-In Progress)
    • MSc - Project-Based (2023-8/2023)

Previously Advised Students (At TAMU): 5

  • Anushka Garg
    • Directed Studies (2024/Spring)
  • Parul Damahe
    • MSc - Project-Based (2023/Summer)
  • Pranav Taukari
    • Directed Studies (2024/Spring)
    • MSc - Project-Based (4/2023-6/2023)
  • Sidharth Anil
    • MSc - Project-Based (2023/5-2024/6)
  • Uros Stanic
    • Undergrad -Faculty of Technical Sciences of Novi Sad (Serbia) - Computer Science Student Advancement Program (CSSAP) Summer Internship - (2023/Summer)

Previously (co)Advised (Undergrad) Students (In Brazil): 5

  • Lucas Baganha Galante (UNICAMP, 2017-2019)
    • Linux Malware and ML-based malware detection.
  • Giovanni Bertão (UNICAMP, 2017-2019)
    • Large-scale malware repositories and application crawling.
  • Vitor Falcão da Rocha (UNICAMP, 2016-2017)
    • Anti-forensics and malware anti-analysis.
  • Raphael Machinicki (UFPR, 2019-2020)
    • Analysis of Android apps’ operations.
  • Felipe Duarte Domingues (UFPR/UNICAMP, 2019-2021)
    • Antivirus’ operations.

International Experience

  • Visiting Researcher: University of Florida (UF-USA), May/2019
    • Hosted by: Prof. Ph.D. Daniela Oliveira
  • Visiting Researcher: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU-GER), November/2018
    • Hosted by: Prof. Ph.D. Tilo Muller
  • Visiting Researcher: University of Florida (UF-USA), August/2018
    • Hosted by: Prof. Ph.D. Daniela Oliveira

Research Interests

  • Malware Analysis, Evasion, and Detection
  • Sandbox Development
  • Antivirus Operation
  • Hardware-Assisted Security Solutions
  • Reverse Engineering

Research Grants

  • NSF SaTC: CORE: Small: An evaluation framework and methodology to streamline Hardware Performance Counters as the next-generation malware detection system - PI - 2024-2026 - $523.415,00 - Link TAMU News

Academic Awards

  • Top-3 Best PhD Thesis in Security - Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) - 2022
    • Prize for: “On the Malware Detection Problem”, Botacin
  • Best PhD Thesis - Informatics Department/UFPR - 2022
    • Prize for: “On the Malware Detection Problem”, Botacin
    • Nominated for the CAPES Award of the Brazilian Education Ministry.
  • Best Master Dissertation in Security - 1st place - Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) - 2018
    • Prize for: “Hardware-Assisted Malware Analysis”, Botacin
  • Best Master Dissertation - Institute of Computing/UNICAMP - 2017
    • Prize for: “Hardware-Assisted Malware Analysis”, Botacin
    • Check Awards Report (in Portuguese) in my former university page.
  • Best Undergraduate Research Paper (co-author)- 1st place - Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) - 2018
    • Prize for: “Malicious Linux Binaries: A Landscape”, Galante et al.
  • Honorable Mention - Main Track - Brazilian Security Symposium - SBC, 2019
    • Prize for: “Malware Variants Identification in Practice”, Botacin et al.
    • Check Here
  • Travel Grant - Student Diversity Grant - USENIX ENIGMA - 2019
  • Distinguished reviewer for NDSS 2024
  • Noteworthy reviewer for RAID 2023
  • Top Reviewer for ACSAC 2023

Contest Prizes

Development Projects

Featured Talks

  • “Near-memory & In-Memory Detection of Fileless Malware” - Keynote at the Brazilian Security Symposium (SBSEG) 2023 - Website
  • “Why Is Our Security Research Failing? Five Practices to Change!” Page Slides - USENIX ENIGMA 2023
  • “Does Your Threat Model Consider Country and Culture? A Case Study of Brazilian Financial Malware to show that it Should!” Page Video - USENIX ENIGMA 2021

Academic Community Services

  • Panel Member:
    • National Science Foundation (NSF) Panelist (+ad-hoc reviewer)
  • Guest Editor:
  • Program Committee (PC) Membership (16):
  • Artifact Evaluation Committee (3):
    • USENIX Security 2020
    • USENIX WOOT 2020
    • Journal of Systems Research (JSys)
  • Ad-hoc reviewer for 55 journals:
    • ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
    • ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice (DTRAP)
    • ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS)
    • ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS)
    • Cell: Patterns
    • Elsevier/ACTA Psychologica (Psy. of security)
    • Elsevier Computers and Electrical Engineering (COMPELECENG)
    • Elsevier Computers & Security
    • Elsevier Computers in Human Behavior
    • Elsevier e-Prime - Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy Announcement
    • Elsevier Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation (Digital Investigation)
    • Elsevier Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems (IOTCPS)
    • Elsevier Journal of Information Security and Applications (JISA)
    • Elsevier Journal of Systems & Software (JSS)
    • Elsevier Machine Learning With Applications (MLWA)
    • Elsevier Microprocessors and Microsystems
    • IEEE Communications
    • IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine (CEMag)
    • IEEE Internet Computing (IC)
    • IEEE Internet of Things Journal
    • IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification (JRFID)
    • IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society (OJCS)
    • IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine
    • IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence (TAI)
    • IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics (TCE)
    • IEEE Transacations on Computational Social Systems (TCSS)
    • IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics (CYB)
    • IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC)
    • IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing (TETC)
    • IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS)
    • IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking (TMLCN)
    • IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC)
    • IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering (TNSE)
    • IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM)
    • IEEE Transactions on Reliability (TR)
    • IEEE Transactions on Service Computing (TSC)
    • IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE)
    • IOS Press Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems (IFS)
    • PLOS One (PONE)
    • Springer Artificial Intelligence Review
    • Springer Cluster Computing
    • Springer Computing
    • Springer International Journal of Information Security
    • Springer Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques (JCVHT)
    • Springer Knowledge and Information Systems
    • Springer Scientific Reports
    • Springer The Journal of SuperComputing
    • Springer World Wide Web
    • Taylor and Francis’ Network: Computation in Neural Systems (TNET)
    • Taylor and Francis’ Deviant Behavior (UDBH)
    • Wiley Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience
    • Wiley Expert Systems
    • Wiley Journal of Software: Evolution and Process
    • Wiley Journal of Software: Practice and Experience
    • Wiley Security and Privacy (SPY)

Publications Summary

  • 18 papers published in international journals.
    • Springer Journal in Computer Virology: 4
    • Elsevier Computers and Security: 4
    • ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS): 3
    • ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice (DTRAP): 2
    • Elsevier Expert Systems With Applications (ESWA): 2
    • ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR): 1
    • IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC): 1
    • Elsevier Digital Investigation: 1
  • 16 papers in International conferences.
    • ACM Reversing and Offensive-oriented Trends Symposium (ROOTS): 3
    • Springer Information Security Conference (ISC): 3
    • ACM International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions and Defenses (RAID): 2
    • Springer Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA): 1
    • ACM Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES): 1
    • ACM Conference on Code Generation and Optimization (CGO): 1
    • ACM Memory Systems (MEMSYS): 1
    • IEEE Reconfigurable Communication-centric Systems-on-Chip (ReCoSoC): 1
    • USENIX Security: 1
    • Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT): 1
    • The International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT): 1
  • 18 papers in Brazilian conferences:
  • 2 book chapters (in Portuguese):
    • Binary Analysis on Modern Platforms (SBSeg short course)
    • Introduction to Reverse Engineering (SBSeg short course)

NOTICE 1: Check the publications tab for paper details.

NOTICE 2: Check Google Scholar for updated paper statistics.

NOTICE 3: Check Web Of Science for an updated (but incomplete) tracking of paper reviews. Currently: 200+ acknowledged reviews.