We're a research group in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Mexico, building defenses against evolving attacks on VPNs, satellites, and mobile & web apps through malware analysis, vulnerability research, and threat intelligence.
Recent work has had real-world impact: our CCS 2026 study of SMS-delivered URLs — covered by Ars Technica, Help Net Security, and TechRadar Pro — exposed personal data across 177 online services and led 7 providers to fix the flaw, and our MVPNalyzer framework (NDSS 2026), covered by The Hacker News and Michigan Engineering News, found that free mobile VPN apps leak user data and fail at basic security promises. Also, we found a novel vulnerability in spacecrafts.
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We are looking for passionate PhD students to work on real-world security problems.
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News
August 2026We are happy to welcome Natalie and Sijan! They will be working on various research projects in security and privacy. Welcome to the team!
July 2026Paper on "The Tragedy of Convenience: Cascading User-Data Leakage from SMS-delivered URLs" will appear at ACM CCS 2026. Congrats Danish and Enrique! Read the Preprint
June 2026Danish received a Bug Bounty worth $1,000 for his work on SMS-delivered URLs. Congratulations Danish!
April 2026We have received NSF CAREER award on building resilient VPNs. Thank you to the students, collaborators, and NSF for their support!
April 2026We hosted Kendra Cook from NASA IV&V. She discussed about “Trust, but Verify (Independently):Securing NASA’s Mission-Critical Software”. Thank you Kendra for visiting us!
March 2026We were visited by David Huggins and Ron Prado from Georgia Tech Research Institute. Thank you for visiting us!
March 2026Afsah delivered a talk on “The Hidden Cost of Security & Privacy Risks in Modern Digital Systems” at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI!. Thank you Dr. Rhongho Jang for the invitation and your hospitality!
March 2026Jack and Afsah are traveling to IEEE Aerospace Conference 2026 in Big Sky, Montana! Jack will be presenting our work on supply chain-based malware threats to small satellites. Come see us there!
February 2026Enrique, Ramsha, and Afsah will be attending NDSS in San Diego. We will be presenting our work on auditing the security and privacy of mobile VPNs. Come see us there!
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