Engin Kirda

Systems, software, and network security
Web security
Binary analysis
Malware detection

PhD in Computer Science, Technical University of Vienna — Austria
MS in Computer Science, Technical University of Vienna — Austria
BS in Computer Science, Technical University of Vienna — Austria

Engin Kirda is a professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and the College of Engineering at Northeastern University, based in Boston.

Kirda’s research focuses on malware analysis and detection, web application security, and practical aspects of social networking security. He is a co-founder of Lastline, Inc., a San-Jose-based company that specializes in the detection and prevention of advanced targeted malware. Additionally, he has co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scholarly publications and has served on numerous program committees for international conferences and workshops.

Before joining Northeastern, Kirda held faculty positions at Institute Eurecom in the French Riviera and at the Technical University of Vienna, where he co-founded the Secure Systems Lab that is now distributed over five institutions in Europe and the United States.

Kirda served as program chair of the International Symposium on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection in 2009, the European Workshop on Systems Security in 2010 and 2011, the USENIX Workshop on Large Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats in 2012, and the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in 2015. He has also consulted the European Commission on emerging threats and gave a congressional briefing in Washington D.C. on advanced malware attacks and cyber-security.

Published: January 28, 2026
DRIFT: Debug-based Trace Inference for Firmware Testing

Citation: Changming Liu, Alejandro Mera, Meng Xu, Engin Kirda. (2025). DRIFT: Debug-based Trace Inference for Firmware Testing ASE, 2568-2579. https://doi.org/10.1109/ASE63991.2025.00211
Published: June 16, 2025
“Only as Strong as the Weakest Link”: On the Security of Brokered Single Sign-On on the Web

Citation: Tommaso Innocenti, Louis Jannett, Christian Mainka, Vladislav Mladenov, Engin Kirda. (2025). "Only as Strong as the Weakest Link": On the Security of Brokered Single Sign-On on the Web SP, 1009-1027. https://doi.org/10.1109/SP61157.2025.00024
Published: February 24, 2025
Secure IP Address Allocation at Cloud Scale

Citation: Eric Pauley, Kyle Domico, Blaine Hoak, Ryan Sheatsley, Quinn Burke , Yohan Beugin, Engin Kirda, Patrick D. McDaniel. (2025). Secure IP Address Allocation at Cloud Scale NDSS. https://www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss-paper/secure-ip-address-allocation-at-cloud-scale/
Published: August 14, 2024
CO3: Concolic Co-execution for Firmware

Citation: Changming Liu, Alejandro Mera, Engin Kirda, Meng Xu, Long Lu. (2024). CO3: Concolic Co-execution for Firmware USENIX Security Symposium. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity24/presentation/liu-changming
Published: August 14, 2024
SHiFT: Semi-hosted Fuzz Testing for Embedded Applications

Citation: Alejandro Mera, Changming Liu, Ruimin Sun, Engin Kirda, Long Lu. (2024). SHiFT: Semi-hosted Fuzz Testing for Embedded Applications USENIX Security Symposium. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity24/presentation/mera
Published: February 26, 2024
Untangle: Multi-Layer Web Server Fingerprinting

Citation: Cem Topcuoglu, Kaan Onarlioglu, Bahruz Jabiyev, Engin Kirda. (2024). Untangle: Multi-Layer Web Server Fingerprinting NDSS. https://www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss-paper/untangle-multi-layer-web-server-fingerprinting/
Published: August 9, 2023
A Study of Multi-Factor and Risk-Based Authentication Availability

Citation: Anthony Gavazzi, Ryan Williams, Engin Kirda, Long Lu, Andre King, Andy Davis, Tim Leek. (2023). A Study of Multi-Factor and Risk-Based Authentication Availability USENIX Security Symposium, 2043-2060. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity23/presentation/gavazzi
Published: November 13, 2021
T-Reqs: HTTP Request Smuggling with Differential Fuzzing

Citation: Bahruz Jabiyev, Steven Sprecher, Kaan Onarlioglu, Engin Kirda. (2021). T-Reqs: HTTP Request Smuggling with Differential Fuzzing CCS, 1805-1820. https://doi.org/10.1145/3460120.3485384
Published: February 9, 2020
Discovering algorithmic denial-of-service vulnerabilities through guided micro-fuzzing

Citation: Blair, William, Andrea Mambretti, Sajjad Arshad, Michael Weissbacher, William K. Robertson, Engin Kirda and Manuel Egele. “HotFuzz: Discovering Algorithmic Denial-of-Service Vulnerabilities Through Guided Micro-Fuzzing.” ArXiv abs/2002.03416 (2020): n. pag.
Published: August 11, 2016
UNVEIL: A Large-Scale, Automated Approach to Detecting Ransomware

Citation: A. Kharraz, S. Arshad, C. Mulliner, W. Robertson, E. Kirda. "UNVEIL: A Large-Scale, Automated Approach to Detecting Ransomware". In USENIX Security Symposium Austin, TX US, Aug 2016.
Published: February 25, 2016
TrueClick: automatically distinguishing trick banners from genuine download links

Citation: "TrueClick: automatically distinguishing trick banners from genuine download links" S Duman, K Onarlioglu, AO Ulusoy, W Robertson, E Kirda- Proceedings of the 30th Annual Computer Security, 2014
Published: July 16, 2015
BabelCrypt: The Universal Encryption Layer for Mobile Messaging Applications

Citation: Ozcan, Ahmet Talha, et al. "BabelCrypt: The Universal Encryption Layer for Mobile Messaging Applications." Financial Cryptography and Data Security. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2015. 355-369.|