• Professor, Computer Science & Engineering
  • Associate Director, Texas A&M Global Cyber Research Institute
  • Engineering Dean’s Research Fellow
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Dr. Nitesh Saxena

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine - 2006
  • M.S., Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara - 2002
  • B.S., Mathematics and Computing, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India - 2000

Research Interests

    • Various aspects of cybersecurity and privacy, with emphasis on computer systems and network security, mobile and Internet of Things device security, applied cryptography, user-centered security and web privacy.
    • I attempt to address cybersecurity problems with approaches from within the core computer science discipline, including systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence, theory and human-computer interaction, and with principles drawn from across disciplines, including psychology and neuroscience, and criminal justice.
    • Well-integrated with research, I have keen interest in cybersecurity education and workforce development. In this line, I have developed and directed several cutting-edge cybersecurity programs, including the Scholarship for Service program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), M.S. cybersecurity program at UAB and M.S. cybersecurity program at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

Awards & Honors

  • Facebook Explorations of Trust in AR, VR and Smart Devices, Finalist - 2020
  • The Mark Weiser Best Paper Award, Runner up, Percom - 2019
  • Graduate School Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentorship - 2017 (UAB)
  • Distinguished Paper Award at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium - 2014
  • Comcast Tech Research and Development Award - 2014
  • Google Faculty Research Awards - 2011 and 2013
  • The Kevin and Jo Ann Reilly Endowed Award - 2012 (UAB)

Selected Publications

  • A. Neupane, N. Saxena, L. Hirshfield and S. Bratt. “The Crux of Voice (In)Security: A Brain Study of Speaker Legitimacy Detection,” Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, February 2019.
  • A. Anand and N. Saxena. “Speechless: Analyzing the Threat to Speech Privacy from Smartphone Motion Sensors,” IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, May 2018.
  • M. Shirvanian and N. Saxena. “CCCP: Closed Caption Crypto Phones to Resist MITM Attacks, Human Errors and Click-Through,” Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Computer and Communications Security, October/November 2017.
  • M. Shirvanian, S. Jarecki, H. Krawczyk and N. Saxena. “A Password Store that Perfectly Hides Passwords from Itself: Design and Usability,” In IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Special Issue on Paradigm Shifts in Cryptographic Engineering, Volume 16, Issue 5, 2019. This is an extended version of: M. Shirvanian, S. Jarecki, H. Krawczyk and N. Saxena. “SPHINX: A Password Store that Perfectly Hides Passwords from Itself,” IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, June 2017.
  • A. Neupane, N. Saxena, J. O. Maximo and R. K. Kana. “Neural Markers of Cybersecurity: An fMRI Study of Phishing, and Malware Warnings,” IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, Volume 11, Issue 9, 1970-1983, 2016. This is an extended version of: A. Neupane, N. Saxena, K. Kuruvilla, M. Georgescu and R. Kana. “Neural Signatures of User-Centered Security: An fMRI Study of Phishing, and Malware Warnings,” Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, February 2014. (Distinguished Paper Award)
  • O. Huhta, P. Shrestha, S. Udar, M. Juuti, N. Saxena and N. Asokan. "Pitfalls in Designing Zero-Effort Deauthentication: Opportunistic Human Observation Attacks,” Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, February 2016.
  • M. Shirvanian, S. Jarecki, N. Saxena and N. Nathan. “Two-Factor Authentication Resilient to Server Compromise Using Mix-Bandwidth Devices,” Network and Distributed System Security Symposium,” February 2014.
  • A. Bagherzandi, S. Jarecki, N. Saxena and Y. Liu. “Password-Protected Secret Sharing,” ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 433-444, October 2011.
  • T. Halevi and N. Saxena. “On Pairing Constrained Wireless Devices Based on Secrecy of Auxiliary Channels: The Case of Acoustic Eavesdropping,” ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 97-108, October 2010.
  • N. Saxena, J. Ekberg, K. Kostiainen and N. Asokan. “Secure Device Pairing based on Visual Channel,” IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Oakland, 306-313, May 2006.
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