Myself

In everything I do, I am driven by curiosity, passion, and ambition to pursue excellence by addressing challenging and interesting problems, combining creative thinking and rigorous methodology, with the ultimate goal of having fun. I am constantly learning and growing as an individual and strive to develop my skills and passions further in the years to come.

Short Work Bio

Professionally, I am a computer scientist specialising in cyber-security research, focusing on practical aspects of systems and software cyber-security. I analyse potential cyber-security threats across various architectural levels and environments and propose effective countermeasures. My recent research investigates the ongoing arms-race between malware and anti-malware, and the integration of artificial intelligence in cyber-security.

I hold a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pisa, where my dissertation focused on enforcing security properties of programs through introspection. My experience in cyber-security spans academia (University of Pisa, Imperial College, and Royal Holloway University of London), research centres (Italian National Research Center) and industry (Finmatica, IBM, and Huawei).

Work News

Our paper, "Practical Protection of Voice-Controllable Devices Against Self-Issued Voice Commands", has been accepted at the 8th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy! Authors: Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella.

I am member of the steering committee of 2nd ACM Workshop on Robust Malware Analysis (WoRMA).

Our paper, "Evaluating Anti-Virus Effectiveness in Linux", has been presented at 2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data! Authors: Giuseppe Raffa, Daniele Sgandurra, Daniel O'Keeffe. The paper is available here.

Our paper, "Active TLS Stack Fingerprinting: Characterizing TLS Server Deployments at Scale", has been awarded the Best Paper Award at Network Traffic Measurement and Analysis Conference (TMA) 2022! Authors: Sosnowski, Markus; Zirngibl, Johannes; Sattler, Patrick; Carle, Georg; Grohnfeldt, Claas; Russo, Michele; Sgandurra, Daniele. The paper preprint is available here.

Our research Alexa versus Alexa: Controlling Smart Speakers by Self-Issuing Voice Commands" has been featured on The Register, on Ars Technica and on Wired.it! See also our informational website.

Our paper "Alexa versus Alexa: Controlling Smart Speakers by Self-Issuing Voice Commands" has been accepted at AsiaCCS 2022! Authors: Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella. The paper preprint is available here.

Our research "RansomClave: Ransomware Key Management using SGX" has been featured on The Record by Recorded Future!

Random Stuff

Art: see the beautiful painting View of Heath Street by Night, by Atkinson Grimshaw, visible at the Tate Modern, London.

Music: listen to The Boys Are Back In Town, by Thin Lizzy. (Note that most guitar tabs around are wrong: see here to learn how to play it correctly.)

Quote: "The goal is to be completely present with the note, to become the note - meaning your attention is absorbed in it fully." (Steve Vai, from the Vaideology book).

Fun fact: interested in (useless) fun facts? The 1939 novel Gadsby is the longest book ever published that doesn't contain the letter 'e' (except for the cover of the book that actually contains a few of thEm!).

Paradox: have a look at the exam paradox. (I guess you didn't expect it?)

Funny: "I intend to live forever. So far, so good." (Steven Wright).

Contacts