Ziming Zhao Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences University at Buffalo zimingzh AT buffalo.edu

I am an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. I direct the CyberspACe securiTy and forensIcs lab (CactiLab). My research interests are in Systems and Software Security, Network and Web Security, and Human-centric Security. I am a recipient of Best Paper Awards from USENIX Security 2019, ACM AsiaCCS 2022, ACM CODASPY 2014, and ITU Kaleidoscope 2016. I got my PhD from Arizona State University CSE.

My research has been supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C), and Department of Defense (DoD). I am a recipient of an NSF CAREER award and an NSF CRII award. I was a visiting faculty at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in 2020/2021.

I am the faculty advisor and the founder of the CTF teams Cacti (all kinds of CTFs) and TigerBytes (hardware CTFs).

Teaching

• Spring 2024, UB CSE 712 Seminar: Microcontroller Systems Security
• Fall 2023, UB CSE 410/518 Software Security Student Evaluation: 5/5 (410), 4.8/5 (518)
• Spring 2023, UB CSE 410/565 Computer Security Student Evaluation: 4.8/5 (410), 4.3/5 (565)
• Fall 2022, UB CSE 410/510 Software Security. Student Evaluation: 4.8/5
• Spring 2022, UB CSE 410/510 Software Security. Student Evaluation: 4.4/5
• Fall 2021, UB CSE 410/510 Software Security. Student Evaluation: 4.8/5
• Spring 2021, UB CSE 703 Seminar: Advanced Software Security - Techniques and Tools
• Fall 2020, UB CSE 610 Special Topics: System Security - Attack and Defense for Binaries. Student Evaluation: 4.8/5
• Spring 2020, RIT CSEC 741 Internet of Things Security.
• Fall 2019, RIT CSEC 659 Seminar in Computing Security: Trusted Computing and Trusted Execution. Student Evaluation: 4.5/5
• Spring 2019, RIT CSEC 741 Sensor and SCADA Security. Student Evaluation: 4.45/5
• Fall 2018, RIT CSEC 750 Covert Communications.
• Spring 2018, ASU CSE 469 Computer and Network Forensics.
• Spring 2017, ASU CSE 469 Computer and Network Forensics. Student Evaluation: 4.49/5
• Fall 2016, ASU CSE 468 Computer Network Security. Student Evaluation: 4.49/5

Research

Selected Funded Projects

For the full list of funded projects, please refer to CactiLab Website.

• NSF. CAREER: SaTC: Rethinking Trusted Execution Environments for Embedded and IoT Systems, 2023 - 2028
  PI: Ziming Zhao
  
  
• NCAE. HACF: Building High Assurance Containers Using FPGA, 2022 - 2024
  PI: Ziming Zhao, Co-PIs: Hongxin Hu, Shambhu Upadhyaya
  
  
• NSF. CRII: SaTC: Securing Internet of Things Against Cache-based Attacks, 2020 - 2023
  PI: Ziming Zhao
  

Selected Publications

For the full list of publications, please refer to CactiLab Website.

Ph.D. Graduates

• Wonkyu Han. Dissertation: Policy-driven Network Defense for Software Defined Networks. Arizona State University. 2016 (Co-advised with Prof. Gail-Joon Ahn)

Last updated 2/2024