Cybercrime

This group's research covers a number of cybercriminal operations, with the goal of better understanding them. Current research include the sturdy of botnets, networks of infected computers that act under the control of a single cybercriminal. By performing measurements and collaborating with law enforcement, the group can provide fundamental insights on how botnets are operated. One focus is botnets that are used to send email spam or to generate virtual currencies by exploiting the computation resources of infected computers.

Researchers in the group also study the anonymity guarantees of Bitcoin, developing various clustering and tracking techniques to significantly erode the anonymity that most users could achieve.  Analysis of cybercriminals' misuse of online social networks to perform malicious activities has resulted in the development of multiple techniques to detect and block such activities.

The researchers in this group collaborate with multiple research institutions and companies around the world such as Microsoft Research, IBM Research, Yahoo!, Twitter, and Symantec. These collaborations enable the research conducted in the academic environment to be adopted in the real world and make a difference in the fight against cybercriminals.