Welcome!

Short Bio. I am a postdoctoral researcher at CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security (March 2023 - present). I work with Prof. Dr. Thorsten Holz at SysSec Lab . I completed my Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans under the supervision of Dr. Phani Vadrevu. My Ph.D. (Jan 2018- Dec 2022) work primarily focused on areas of Phishing, Web Security Crawlers, Browser Fingerprinting, and building tools for large-scale measurement using honeypots. Before academia, I worked several years in multiple industries including Amazon, Microsoft performing software development and assurances. I often collaborate with researchers from diverse institutes, and fortunate to supervise 15+ students (mostly thesis) at SysSec Lab.

Current Focus. As a postdoctoral researcher, my work centers on exploring various aspects of Internet cybercrimes, including phishing, scams, illicit activities, money laundering, and online abuse. My primary objective is to develop effective defense mechanisms against these threats. My current research spans the following areas: -

i) Creating proactive mechanisms to detect and prevent emerging threats and cybercrimes on the Internet
ii) Exploring the detailed operations of illicit campaigns, including cryptocurrency and money laundering
iii) Detecting fraudulent social media profiles and web domains targeting users in different attack scenarios
iv) Conducting large-scale web measurements at the intersection of privacy and security to identify risks to users and platforms

Applied Research. I often engage in collaborations with industry leaders such as PayPal Inc., Chainabuse (cryptocurrency abuse database), X (formerly know as Twitter), Google Abuse and others. These partnerships facilitate the reporting of identified abusing payment profiles, accounts and the associated fraudulent elements, aiming to prevent any subsequent misuse or future attacks in the broader digital landscape.

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