I am a second year Computer Science Ph.D. student at UCL advised by Dr. Marie Vasek and Professor Steven J. Murdoch.

Research

My Ph.D. research focuses on fighting against online financial crime, whose center of attention is smishing (SMS-based-phishing). I am working to devise methodologies to collect an updated novel SMS phishing data feed and analyze this in an automated fashion to understand the ecosystem in-depth. The research also looks into understanding the human perceptions and susceptibility towards smishing through a socio-technical approach.

Apart from my Ph.D. research, I work on several other areas of cyber security, cybercrime and law. I found an RFID related vulnerability in the Yale Home Keyless Smart locks with a CVE score of 4.6, which was reported to Assa Abloy/Yale Home. The official product security advisory is available here. Also available at Yale website.

Education

• MSc in Information Security
  University College London (UCL), London, UK
  Recipient of the Dean’s List Award for outstanding academic performance
  Thesis Advisor: Dr. Marie Vasek

• BTech in Computer Science and Engineering
  VIT University, Chennai, India

Personal

I was born and brought up in a small valley in the lap of the Himalayas, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. In 2018 I moved to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland to work for the CERN Computer Security Team. I worked at CERN for almost three years where my last position was a Research Scientist at the CMS Experiment’s Offline Computing Team. In 2020, I moved to London to start my taught Master’s in Information Security where I did my thesis on Online Ponzi Schemes/HYIPs. During my thesis, I started working part-time for the Bristol Cyber Security Group on the CyFoo project, funded by the PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity. After my graduation in September 2021, I was appointed to work full time on the project.

During this exciting journey of my life, I have been lucky to visit several countries in Europe to attend conferences and summer schools. I love travelling and exploring new places, capturing them through my lens (see some on Behance), and getting to know about various cultures. Like most of the other cybersecurity researchers, I love watching crime and thriller series. Being a foodie, I love trying different cuisines, Indian still being my favourite. Want to discuss anything about cyber security/crime, lets catchup over a cup of freshly brewed coffee!