About Me

I am an Assistant Professor at IIIT Hyderabad, India. Here, I'm associated with Centre for Security, Theory, and Algorithmic Research (CSTAR). I am a member of Ripple's UBRI and hold a Guest Researcher position at the SPRITZ research group at University of Padua, Italy. In the past, I worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in Delft Blockchain Lab of TU Delft, Netherlands (advisors: Prof. Zekeriya Erkin and Prof. Stefanie Roos). I was also a Visiting Research Scholar (host: Prof. Giuseppe Ateniese) at Stevens Institute of Technology, USA. I earned my PhD degree in Brain, Mind, and Computer Science (supervisors: Prof. Mauro Conti and Prof. Anna Spagnolli) from University of Padua, Italy with a fully-funded fellowship by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo (CaRiPaRo). I also hold an MTech degree (supervisor: Prof. Manoj Singh Gaur) in Computer Engineering from MNIT Jaipur, India and a BTech degree in Information Technology from RTU Kota, India.

I have worked in different mainstream areas of research, including distributed ledger technology (blockchain and cryptocurrencies), networking (ICN and SDN), and AI (GAN-based password cracking). However, the main theme of my research has always been security and privacy. My research work is inherently multidisciplinary. Currently, I am focusing on the following research areas:

• Blockchain: Consensus and micropayments.
• Privacy: Anonymity and identity.
• Security: Communication and system.

I am motivated to learn, work upon, and teach new technologies in the field of computer science. I am always delighted to supervise strongly motivated Master's and PhD students, who are willing to work with me in my research areas (broadly, security and privacy). If you are interested, please drop me an email (with your CV).

Activities

• (Invited-) Talks
  • [I2] "Modern Ransomware in the Bitcoin Playground," BLOCKCHAIN le sfide della sicurezza nell'era di Bitcoin, Padua, Italy, January 31, 2019.
  • [I1] "Software Defined Networks: An Overview," International Symposium on Future Internet: Security Issues and Opportunities, Padua, Italy, May 10, 2018.
  
  
  • [T2] "Risk and Ransomware" (in collaboration with Eireann Leverett and Jurriaan Bremer), 31st FIRST Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 16-21, 2019.
  • [T1] "Come to the Dark Side! We have Radical Insurance Groups & Ransomware" (in collaboration with Eireann Leverett), 14th hack.lu, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, October 16-18, 2018.


• Awards/Honours
  • [A4] DBL post-doctoral research fellowship, 2020-2022.
  • [A3] Young Researcher Award (2nd runner-up) at DIGITALmeet '18, 2018.
  • [A2] Intel Student Travel Grant at IEEE NFV-SDN '17, 2017.
  • [A1] CaRiPaRo doctoral research fellowship, 2016-2019.


• Fundings/Projects
  • [F1] "Secure Provisioning of Blockchain-based Systems over Future Internet Architecture," Ripple Centre of Excellence seed fund, 2021-2024.


• Research Visits
  • [V1] Visiting Research Scholar (Host: Prof. Giuseppe Ateniese) at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, USA, April-October 2019.


• Reviewer
  • Journals: IEEE TIFS, IEEE TDSC, IEEE TNSM, IEEE TSC, ACM TCPS, IEEE Access, Elsevier COMNET, Springer IJIS.
  • Conferences: FC '21, ESORICS '21, ACM CODASPY '21, NDSS '20, ACM ASIACCS '20, ESORICS '20, ACM WiSec '20, IEEE CNS '20, IEEE ISCC '20, ICICS '20, ISC '20, ESORICS '19, WWW '19, ACNS '19, IEEE NFV-SDN '19, IEEE ICC '19 CISS, IEEE ICCE '19, ACM CIKM '18, IEEE NFV-SDN '18, IEEE/ACM ASONAM '18, WISTP '18, IEEE NFV-SDN '17, ICISS '17.
  • Workshops: CBT '20 (in conjunction with ESORICS '20), CPS4CIP '20 (in conjunction with ESORICS '20), CPSS '18 (in conjunction with ACM ASIACCS '18), CyberICPS '18 (in conjunction with ESORICS '18), CPS-Sec '18 (in conjunction with IEEE CNS '18), SPA '17 (in conjunction with IEEE CNS '17).


• Seminars/Guest Lectures
  • [G3] "A Look at Bitcoin Offshoots" in "Computer and Network Security: Advanced Topics" course, TU Delft, Netherlands, June 2, 2021.
  • [G2] "ABC: Algorand + Bitcoin-apps + Cryptominers" in "Computer and Network Security" course, University of Padua, Italy, November 11, 2020.
  • [G1] "ABC: Algorand + Bitcoin-apps + Cryptominers" in "Computer and Network Security: Advanced Topics" course, TU Delft, Netherlands, May 14, 2020.


• Web Chair
  • [W1] SPA '17 (in conjunction with IEEE CNS '17), Las Vegas, USA, October 11, 2017.

Media Coverage

Recent/Selected News

• May 2021: We have joined the global NDN testbed. Our NDN node is up and fully functional.
• February 2021: My project proposal "Secure Provisioning of Blockchain-based Systems over Future Internet Architecture" has won the Ripple Centre of Excellence seed fund.


• October 2020: Our paper "Detecting Covert Cryptomining using HPC" has been accepted at CANS '20.
• August 2020: Our paper "Averages don't Characterise the Heavy Tails of Ransoms" has been accepted at APWG/IEEE eCrime '20.
• June 2020: Our paper "Improving Password Guessing via Representation Learning" has been accepted at IEEE S&P '21.
• [News archive]