Post-Doctoral Researcher in Cybersecurity

The SPIES lab in the Computer Science and Engineering department at Texas A&M University, College Station is looking to hire a post-doctoral researcher. SPIES lab, directed by Dr. Nitesh Saxena, is one of the leading academic cybersecurity research labs, broadly focusing on computer and network security, user-centered security (including cognitive security), AI and ML security, and applied cryptography. The selected candidates will work with the PI, the students in the lab and a strong network of collaborators at A&M and other top-tier institutions and industry labs on cutting-edge projects of mutual interest. The candidate will have the opportunity to lead new research projects, define research agenda and work on research proposals submitted to federal and state organizations. As such this is a unique opportunity to enhance the candidate’s research and teaching careers through collaboration building, focused mentorship from the PI, student mentoring engagement and potential teaching opportunities. This is not merely a job but a rare professional development opportunity.

Annual salary: Starting at $72,000 yearly, commensurate to experience.

Duration: 2 years, renewable after the first year.

Start date: Immediate 

Qualifications:

• PhD degree in Computer Science or a related field, completed by the start date.
• A strong academic record supported by publications in top-tier venues in cybersecurity and computer science.

Application materials (email to: Nitesh Saxena nsaxena@tamu.edu)

• Curriculum Vitae
• Research Statement
• Names of three references (letters will be requested only after an initial screening)

 

• News Reader: A News Interest Identification Attack using   Single-Electrode Brainwave Signals
  Anuradha Mandal, Cagri Arisoy and Nitesh Saxena
  In the 27th Information Security Conference (ISC), October 2024

Breaching Security Keys without Root: FIDO2 Deception Attacks via Overlays exploiting Limited Display Authenticators

Ahmed Tanvir Mahdad, Mohammed Jubur, and Nitesh Saxena
In the ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), October 2024.

• Mobile Login Bridge: Subverting 2FA and Passwordless Authentication via Android Debug Bridge
  Ahmed Tanvir Mahdad and Nitesh Saxena
  In the International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust (PST), 2024.
• Disease Detector: A Disease Inference Attack Using Brainwave Signals Associated with Body Postures
  Anuradha Mandal and Nitesh Saxena
  In the International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust (PST), 2024.

SAFARI: Speech-Associated Facial Authentication for AR/VR Settings via Robust VIbration Signatures
Tianfang Zhang, Qiufan Ji, Zhengkun Ye, Md Mojibur Rahman Redoy Akanda, Ahmed Tanvir Mahdad, Cong Shi, Yan Wang, Nitesh Saxena and Yingying Chen
In the ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), October 2024.

• Dual Study of Canvas Fingerprinting based Authentication: A Novel Spoofing Attack and the Countermeasure
  Zengrui Liu and Nitesh Saxena
  In the 44^th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, July 2024

Congratulations to Mashari Alatawi for defending his PhD dissertation. On the pertinent topic of end-to-end encryption security, including authentication ceremonies and client-side scanning. Recent pretty good papers at CODASPY’24, WiSec’23 and more. He will be taking on a tenure-track assistant professor position at King Saud University, a top-tier school in his home country Saudi Arabia

The 16th PhD graduate of the SPIES Lab@TAMU. 🥂

• Automating Key Fingerprint Comparisons in Secure Mobile Messaging Apps: A Case Study of Signal
  Mashari Alatawi and Nitesh Saxena
  In the 14^th ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy (CODASPY), June 2024.

Dr. Saxena will be part of the pivotal initiative on Texas A&M’s engagement in the U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium with NIST, a collaboration that brings together over 200 of America’s top AI stakeholders to promote the development of AI that is safe, secure, and trustworthy.

For more information about the program, please visit the TAMIDS website.

Zengrui Liu and Cagri Arisoy, the latest PhD graduates from the SPIES lab, are both starting as tenure-track assistant professors this Spring. Zengrui will be joining the College of Information Engineering at the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China. Cagri will be joining the College Engineering Computer Engineering department at the Yozgat Bozok University. Turkey.

Congratulations to both! They will be applying their unique education, research and teaching skills to serve their home countries!