Software-Defined Networking &
Network Functions Virtualization Security

Active Members

Alaa Oqaily

Alaa Oqaily is a PhD student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. She got her MSc and BSc in computer science from Jordan University of Science and Technology, in 2008 and 2014, respectively. Contact Info: a_oqaily@encs.concordia.ca

Alireza Moghaddas Borhan

Alireza Moghaddas Borhan is a MASc student and researcher at the Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He has earned his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Tehran. In the past he has also been a member of a maps and navigation company in Tehran as a software engineer.

Arash Daneshmand

Arash Daneshmand is a Ph.D. student at Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He obtained his Master's degree in Computer Architecture at the Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Previously, He worked as the head of the IT department of an EPC company and carried out several network projects in Iran for 3 years. His research interests include but are not limited to cloud computing, network security, network function virtualization (NFV), container security, and 5G.

Bergen Davis

Bergen Davis is an M.A.Sc. student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Technology in Kingston, Jamaica. Previously, he worked as an engineer for a major telecommunications company in Jamaica, where he supported and managed enterprise applications across the Caribbean and Latin America. His research interests include, but are not limited to, RAN security, cloud computing, network security, Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and container security.

Hinddeep Purohit

Hinddeep Purohit is an M.A.Sc student and a MITACS research intern at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He earned his bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from RK University, India. He has served as a cybersecurity intern at Tata Consultancy Services, India and is a co-founder of a web and mobile app development start-up named Appstasy. He has published one paper and his research interests include Cloud computing, cybersecurity, SDN and 5G. Currently, he is working on 5G vRAN security.

Hugo Kermabon-Bobinnec

Hugo Kermabon-Bobinnec is a Ph.D. candidate at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He previously obtained his M.A.Sc in Information Systems Security from Concordia University. Before, he studied embedded systems, hardware acceleration and electronics at IMT Atlantique, France. Currently, his research interests include containers security, 5G security, cloud-computing, network function virtualization (NFV) and OS security.

Jainil Shah

Jainil Shah is a M.A.Sc student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He earned his bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from CHARUSAT University, India. He has published one paper and currently, he is working on implementing a Proof of Concept (PoC) with an interactive GUI for a Blackbox detection module.

Lingyu Wang

Lingyu Wang is a professor in the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in Information Technology from George Mason University. His research interests include data privacy, network security, security metrics, cloud computing security, and malware analysis. He has published about 100 refereed conference and journal articles on security and privacy.

Makan Pourzandi

Dr. Makan Pourzandi is a researcher at Ericsson, Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from University of Lyon, France. He co-authored a book, has 8 granted patents and more than 50 research papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences. His current research interests include security, cloud computing, software security engineering, cluster computing, and component-based methods for secure software development.

Mourad Debbabi

Mourad Debbabi is a Full Professor at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering and Associate Dean Research and Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science of Concordia University. He holds the Concordia Research Chair Tier I in Information Systems Security. He is also the President of the National Cyber Forensics Training Alliance (NCFTA Canada). He is the founder and one of the leaders of the Computer Security Laboratory (CSL) at Concordia University. In the past, he was the Specification Lead of four Standard JAIN (Java Intelligent Networks) Java Specification Requests (JSRs) dedicated to the elaboration of standard specifications for presence and instant messaging. Dr. Debbabi holds Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in computer science from Paris-XI Orsay, University, France. He published 3 books and more than 260 research papers in journals and conferences on computer security, cyber forensics, privacy, cryptographic protocols, threat intelligence generation, malware analysis, reverse engineering, specification and verification of safetycritical systems, formal methods, Java security and acceleration, programming languages and type theory. He supervised to successful completion 23 Ph.D. students and more than 65 Master students. He served as a Senior Scientist at the Panasonic Information and Network Technologies Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA; Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department of Laval University, Quebec, Canada; Senior Scientist at General Electric Research Center, New York, USA; Research Associate at the Computer Science Department of Stanford University, California, USA; and Permanent Researcher at the Bull Corporate Research Center, Paris, France.

Rogelio Pumajulca

Rogelio is a M.A.Sc student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He earned his bachelor's degree in information systems security at UPC, Perú. Previously, he has worked as a Security Analyst for IBM Security. His research interests include cloud and network security.

Sareh Mohammadi

Sareh Mohammadi is a Ph.D. student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE), Concordia University. She obtained her M.Sc. in Software Engineering from Tehran Islamic Azad University of Tehran and her B.Sc. from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman (SBUK), Iran. Previously, she served as a Senior Lecturer at Islamic Azad University in Kerman, Iran, for 8 years. Her research interests include Database Management Systems (DBMS), data analysis, query optimization, provenance data, and security data & root cause analysis.

Suryadipta Majumdar

Suryadipta Majumdar is an assistant professor at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE), Concordia University. Previously he was an assistant professor with the Information Security and Digital Forensics department at SUNY, Albany. Dr. Majumdar is an active member of Audit Ready Cloud (ARC) research group. Recently, he was a National Sciences and Engineering Reserach Council (NSERC) Canada Graduate Scholar at Concordia University, from where he received his PhD (with Dr. Lingyu Wang). Previously, he finished his MASc in Information Systems Security from Concordia University (with Dr. Mohammad Mannan) and his BSc in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). His research interests include cloud security auditing, cloud data privacy and software defined network (SDN) security.

Tomas Navarro

Tomas Navarro is an M.A.Sc. student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer science at EAFIT University in Colombia. He was a research assistant at EAFIT University working in the Apolo Scientific Computing Center. His research interests include Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Network Security and 5G.

Yosr Jarraya

Yosr Jarraya is an Experienced Researcher at Ericsson Security Research since August 2016. Previously, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Ericsson Security Research, Montreal, Canada. In past, being an active member of the Computer Security Laboratory (CSL), she worked as a Research Associate, a Postdoctoral Fellow and a Research Assistant at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) at Concordia University. She holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Concordia University, Montreal and a M.Sc. in Telecommunications from Ecole Superieure des Communications de Tunis (SupCom), Tunisia. She published 1 book and more than 20 research papers in journals and conferences. Her research interests include cloud computing, software-defined networking, network security, cyber security, verification and validation, and software and systems engineering.

Former Members

A S M Asadujjaman

A S M Asadujjaman is a PhD Student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. Previously, he completed MSc in Information and Communication Technology from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka. Before joining Concordia University as a PhD student, he worked as a Lead Engineer in Banglalink Digital Communications Limited, Dhaka, Bangladesh where he led IP Network Planning during transformation into 4G in 2018. His research is in the area of Cloud Computing security, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) security, Software Defined Network (SDN) security and application of Machine Learning (ML) in security.

Ailin Nekavand

Ailin Nekavand is currently pursuing Master of Applied Science in Information Systems Security at Concordia University, Montréal, Canada. She received her BSc. degree in Information Technology from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. Her current research interests include SDN and NFV Security.

Amir Alimohammadifar

Amir Alimohammadifar is currently a Senior Security DevOps Specialist at Blackberry. He completed his BSc in Information Technology in 2010. He received his MSc in Information Technology, communication and computer networks from Sharif University of Technology, 2012 under supervision of Dr. Mohammad Khansari and Dr. Hamidreza Rabiee. He is presently doing his M.A.Sc in Information Systems Security at Concordia University under supervision of Dr. Lingyu Wang and Dr. Mourad Debbabi. Contact Info: ami_alim@encs.concordia.ca.

Ata Changizi

Ata Changizi is currently a Cybersecurity Consultant at SecureTab Inc. He received his M.Eng degree in Information Systems Security from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Previously, he worked in one of the top 10 largest financial services companies as Information Security Vice President. His current research interests include security, privacy, data protection and machine learning.

Azadeh Tabiban

Azadeh Tabiban works as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Department of University of Manitoba. Previously, she was an industrial Postdoctoral Fellow at Ericsson Montreal collaborating with the University of Waterloo (with Prof. Raouf Boutaba and Prof. Makan Pourzandi), and is also involved as a researcher in the NSERC/Ericsson ARC Research Group in SDN/NFV Security Project. She completed her PhD at Concordia University (with Prof. Lingyu Wang and Prof. Makan Pourzandi). Her research focuses on building scalable and intelligent technologies which increase the transparency and trustworthiness of real-world computing systems, and facilitate the security analysis tasks of human.

Gagandeep Singh Chawla

Gagandeep Singh Chawla is currently working as a Cloud Security Analyst at SAP. He completed Master of Applied Science in Information Systems Security at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He had his Bachelor in Computer Science and Technology from Amity University, India from 2011 to 2015.

Habib Louafi

Habib Louafi is an assistant professor at the University of Regina. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Ericsson security research, Montreal, Canada. Before, he was doing PostDoc at École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) in collaboration with Ericsson. He has been involved in numerous projects, such as M2M and smart house, in collaboration with Ericsson research, Montreal. He received his Ph.D degree in computer engineering from École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, Canada. He obtained his M.Sc. from University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), and B.Sc. from the University of Oran (Algeria). His primary research interests include cloud/mobile cloud computing, M2M smart cities, information security, computer forensics, and intrusion response systems.

Masoud Bozorgi

Masoud Bozorgi is an alumnus to the ARC project. He was an intern at Ericsson Cloud-Security Research team, Montreal, Canada. He founded the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) company at second largest city of Iran (Esfahan); he increased number of customer from zero to 1000, and number of staff from one to 100 people. Masoud previously worked as a network administrator, software analyst and project manager. He holds a M.Eng. in Software Engineering from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and a BSc in Information Technology from Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran, Iran.

Mahmood Gholipour

Mahmood Gholipour is currently an M.A.Sc student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE), Concordia University. He received his M.Sc. in Computer/Software Engineering from University of Tehran in Tehran, Iran in 2013. He then worked as a Software/Network Researcher and Developer at a well-known IT company in Iran for 5 years from 2015 to 2020. His research interests include Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Security, High Performance Computing and Real-Time Systems.

Meisam Mohammady

Dr. Meisam Mohammady is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University (ISU). Prior to joining ISU, he was a Research Scientist at CSIRO Data61 which is the Australia's leading digital research network, helping various partners across business, government and industry to solve a wide range of data-centric problems. Meisam obtained his Ph.D. from Concordia Institute for Information and Systems Engineering (CIISE) , Montreal, QC, Canada, where he was jointly supervised by Prof. Lingyu Wang and Prof. Yuan Hong (UConn). Before that, he received his M.Sc degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Ecole Polytechnique Montreal, Canada, and B.Sc degree from the Electrical Engineering Departmen of Sharif University of Technology, respectively. Meisam is the reciepient of the Distinguished PhD Dissertation Awards among all Engineering and Natural Science PhD dissertations and selected as Concordia University's nominee for both Canada-wide CAGS and ADESAQ competitions. His research focuses on developing responsible (Private, Adversarially Robust and Fair) Machine Learning techniques including Federated Learning with provable accuracy, Differential Privacy, privacy preserving cloud security auditing, security cyberphysical systems, and the internet of things.

Mengyuan Zhang

Mengyuan Zhang is an Experienced Researcher at Ericsson Research, Montreal, QC, Canada since 2018. She received her Ph.D. in Information and Systems Engineering from Concordia University in Montreal. She holds B.E. and M.E. degrees from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in China. Her research interests include security metrics, attack surface and cloud computing security and privacy.She has published several research papers and book chapters on the aforementioned topics.

Mohammad Ekramul Kabir

Mohammad Ekramul Kabir is a Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He received his Ph.D. degree in Information and Systems Engineering from Concordia University, Montreal Canada in 2021. Previously, he was an assistant professor in University of Information Technology and Sciences in Bangladesh. His research interests include proactive security solutions by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for cloud/edge computing virtual infrastructures.

Momen Oqaily

Momen Oqaily is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Concordia Institute for Information System Engineering, Concordia University. He earned his bachelor's degree in Network Engineering and Security from Jordan University of Science and Technology, followed by a master's degree in Information System Engineering at Concordia University. His research is centered on the development of scalable and intelligent technologies aimed at enhancing the transparency and reliability of real-world computing systems. Additionally, he focuses on cloud computing security, NFV/5G security and privacy.

Ronald Ellis

Ronald Ellis is an alumnus to the ARC project. He has completed his Master of Engineering in Information Systems Security at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. He had his BSc in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Ronald has a keen interest in cloud computing and network security.

Sima Bagheri

Sima Bagheri is a M.A.Sc student at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University. She obtained her M.Sc., and B.Sc. in information technology engineering at Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Her research interest focuses on Cloud computing security, attack detection/mitigation, and AI-aided security.

Sudershan

Sudershan is currently working as a Jr. Information Security Analyst at SAP. He received his M.A.Sc in Information Systems Security from Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. He obtained his M.Sc. in Software Engineering from Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India. He then worked as a Software/Network Security Engineer at Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd., India for 3 years. His research interests include Cloud Computing Security & Privacy, Network Security and Software Security.

Taous Madi

Taous Madi is an Experienced Researcher at Ericsson. She received the Ph.D. degree in information and systems engineering at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. She received the B.S. degree in engineering and the Magister degree from the Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene, Algiers, Algeria, in 2007 and 2010, respectively. Her research interests include cloud computing, mobile computing, software-defined networking, and security.

Yuan Hong

Dr. Yuan Hong is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Illinois Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree in Information Technology from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, the M.Sc degree in Computer Science from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, and the B.Sc degree from Beijing Institute of Technology. He is a senior member of the IEEE.His research interests include Privacy, Security, Digital Forensics and Optimization. He has published in refereed journals and conferences proceedings, such as IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (TEM), Journal of Computer Security (JCS), Optimization Letters, ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), ACM Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), ACM International Conference on Extending Database Technology (EDBT), and IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM). His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Yue Xin

Yue Xin is an alumnus to the ARC project. She has contributed in improving the ARC dashboard and in the integration to OpenStack Congress.

Yushun Wang

Yushun Wang is an alumnus to the ARC project. He has completed his M.A.Sc in Information System Security, Concordia University in 2017. Previously, he worked as a customer network support engineer, Ericsson (China) for 12 years.