Engin Kirda
Professor,
Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Professor,
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Contact
- ek@ccs.neu.edu
- 202 West Village H
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Social Media
Office
- 617.373.7484
Research Focus
Malware analysis and detection; web security; social network security; reverse engineering; intrusion detection
About
Professor Kirda is director of the Information Assurance Program, a joint PhD offered by the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and the College of Engineering. Professor Kirda was previously awarded the inaugural Sy and Laurie Sternberg Interdisciplinary Chaired Professorship. Previously he was on the faculty of the Networking and Security Department at Institute Eurecom in France, and computer science faculty at Technical University of Vienna.
Professor Kirda’s research focuses on security issues with the potential to affect a large number of people. He is the co-founder and co-director of the International Secure Systems Lab, a collaborative effort of European and U.S. researchers focused on Web security, malware and vulnerability analysis, intrusion detection, and other computer security issues. The lab is well known in industry and academia for developing tools such as Anubis, which analyzes malware; FIRE (FInding RoguE Networks), which determines whether an Internet service provider has been hacked; and Pixy, which conducts vulnerability assessments for web pages.
Education
- PhD, Technical University of Vienna, 2002
Research Overview
Malware analysis and detection; web security; social network security; reverse engineering; intrusion detection
Selected Research Projects
- Flanker: Automatically Detecting Lateral Movement in Organizations Using Heterogeneous Data and Graph Representation Learning
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Continuum: Finding Space and Time Vulnerabilities in Java Programs
- – Co-Principal Investigator, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- DarkDroid: Exposing the Dark Side of Android Marketplaces
- – Principal Investigator, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Firmalice: Modeling and Identifying Malice in Firmware
- – Principal Investigator, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Collaborative: Automated Reverse Engineering of Commodity Software
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Research Centers and Institutes
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- M. Weissbacher, W. Robertson, E. Kirda, C. Kruegel, G. Vigna, ZigZag: Automatically Hardening Web Applications Against Client-side Validation Vulnerabilities, In USENIX Security Symposium, Washington DC, 2015
- C. Mulliner, W. Robertson, E. Kirda, Hidden GEMs: Automated Discovery of Access Control Vulnerabilities in Graphical User Interfaces, In IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), San Jose, CA, 2014
- S. Le Blonde, A. Uritesc, C. Gilbert, Z. Leong Chua, P. Saxena, E. Kirda, Look at Targeted Attacks through the Lense of an NGO, In USENIX Security Symposium, San Diego, CA, 2014
- K. Onarlioglu, C. Mulliner, W. Robertson, E. Kirda, PrivExec: Private Execution as an Operating System Service, In IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), San Francisco, CA, 2013
- L. Bilge, E. Kirda, C. Kruegel, M. Balduzzi, EXPOSURE: Finding Malicious Domains Using Passive DNS Analysis, In Network and Distributed Systems Security Symposium (NDSS) San Diego, CA, 2011
Jan 31, 2025
2024 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes those who published a paper in 2024 or later.
Dec 07, 2023
2023 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above.
Nov 02, 2022
2022 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
A group of COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above.
Dec 23, 2021
COE Professors Selected in Stanford University List of Top 2% Scientists Worldwide
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The […]
Jul 14, 2021
Automatically Detecting Computer Breaches in the Network
Khoury/ECE Professor Engin Kirda, in collaboration with Gianluca Stringhini from the Boston University, will be working on a $500K NSF grant for “Flanker: Automatically Detecting Lateral Movement in Organizations Using Heterogeneous Data and Graph Representation Learning.”
Mar 12, 2020
Cybersecurity: Your Secrets Are Safe With Us
Northeastern researchers are at the forefront of cybersecurity research, protecting everything from the phone in your pocket to the city of the future.
Feb 15, 2017
Are Self-Driving Cars Hackable?
CCIS/ECE Professor Engin Kirda assessed the cyber-security risks associated with self-driving cars.
Aug 13, 2014
Thwarting Cyber-espionage
ECE & Khoury College Associate Professor Engin Kirda is developing advanced malware detection software to analyze and protect against the growing number of targeted cyberattacks. When it comes to Internet […]
Aug 08, 2014
Detecting Vulnerabilities
ECE & CCIS Associate Professor Engin Kirda & Assistant Professor Wil Robertson won a $500K NSF grant to build an analysis tool which automates, engineers, & summarizes closed source binary software
May 20, 2013
Stopping Cyber Criminals
To stop cybercrime, you need to think like a criminal. That's what Northeastern is teaching information assurance students to do. – See more at: http://www.northeastern.edu/magazine/know-thine-enemy/#sthash.KID73xMR.dpuf