Abstract

Attackers and defenders are engaged in an information arms race, where gaining a momentary upper-hand can mean the difference between a successful or thwarted attack. One of the most coveted pieces of information sought for in this struggle is the true identity of users and systems performing network communications. Despite efforts taken to provide anonymity, unique characteristics of side-channel data is often enough to accurately identify networked entities, similar to how biological fingerprints can identify individuals. Thus, network fingerprinting allows malefactors to target vulnerable systems with specially-crafted attacks, and defenders to identify and prevent such attacks.

Title

Securing Online Infrastructure Using Network Fingerprinting

Contact events [at] cs.stonybrook.edu for Zoom info.

In this report, we demonstrate the practical benefits of network fingerprinting in securing online systems and identifying attackers. We conduct the first large-scale study of data-saving mobile browsers on the Android platform and discover critical vulnerabilities leaving billions of users exposed to attacks. Further, we present methodologies to uncover previously hidden campaigns from two-factor authentication phishing toolkits. We show how network timing analysis and TLS fingerprinting can be used to detect the presence of these toolkits in network communications from the perspectives of both the victim client and targeted web server.

TITLE

Ten Things You Need to know about starting a startup or working for one. Five Things You Need to Do To Be Successful in Grad School.

ABSTRACT

We'll talk about the secrets nobody tells you about how to be successful in graduate school. We'll also talk about startups. Why you want to work for one. Why you want to start one. Or why you may NOT want to have anything to do with startups.

BIO

Radu's research lies broadly in systems and cyber security. He is also working in generalized AI and specifically in designing fast massive spiking neural network machines. Radu is also on the team of Virtalica Inc and Private Machines Inc, two startups building next generation
high-performance zero trust infrastructure technology.