I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University, where I co-direct the Security Lab (SeclaBU). Between 2014 and 2018 I was faculty in the Departments of Computer Science and Security and Crime Science at University College London (UCL). I am affiliated with the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, the Computer Science Department, the Center for Antiracist Research, and the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy & Research at BU.
In my research I apply a data-driven approach to better understand malicious activity on the Internet. Through the collection and analysis of large-scale datasets, I develop novel and robust mitigation techniques to make the Internet a safer place. My research involves a mix of quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, machine learning, crime science, and systems design.
I am the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, the Early Career Excellence in Research Award from the BU College of Engineering, five best/distinguished paper awards (DIMVA 2019, CYBERSAFETY 2019, IMC 2018, eCrime 2017, ACSAC 2010), and eight honorable mentions/impact recognitions (CHI 2024, CSCW 2023, CCS 2022, CHI 2022, CSCW 2021, CSCW 2021, ICWSM 2020, ICWSM 2017).
My research is supported by the NSF and Google.
You can read more about my research in this article by The Brink
Pujan Paudel, Mohammad Hammas Saeed, Rebecca Auger, Chris Wells, and Gianluca Stringhini. USENIX Security, 2024.
PIXELMOD: Improving Soft Moderation of Visual Misleading Information on TwitterPujan Paudel, Chen Ling, Jeremy Blackburn, and Gianluca Stringhini. USENIX Security, 2024.
Pandawan: Quantifying Progress in Linux-based Firmware RehostingIoannis Angelakopoulos, Gianluca Stringhini, and Manuel Egele. USENIX Security, 2024.
LLMs Cannot Reliably Identify and Reason About Security Vulnerabilities (Yet?): A Comprehensive Evaluation, Framework, and BenchmarksSaad Ullah, Mingji Han, Saurabh Pujar, Hammond Pearce, Ayse Coskun, and Gianluca Stringhini. Oakland, 2024.
TUBERAIDER: Attributing Coordinated Hate Attacks on YouTube Videos to their Source CommunitiesMohammad Hammas Saeed, Kostantinos Papadamou, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, and Gianluca Stringhini. ICWSM, 2024.
Lambretta: Learning to Rank for Twitter Soft ModerationPujan Paudel, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Savvas Zannettou, and Gianluca Stringhini. OAKLAND, 2023.
Understanding the Use of Images to Spread COVID-19 Misinformation on TwitterYuping Wang, Chen Ling, and Gianluca Stringhini. CSCW, 2023.
Getting Meta: A Multimodal Approach for Detecting Unsafe Conversations within Instagram Direct Messages of YouthShiza Ali, Afsaneh Razi, Seunghyun Kim, Ashwaq Alsoubai, Chen Ling, Munmun De Chowdhury, Pamela Wisniewski, and Gianluca Stringhini. CSCW, 2023.
Sliding into My DMs: Detecting Uncomfortable or Unsafe Sexual Risk Experiences within Instagram Direct Messages Grounded in the Perspective of YouthAfsaneh Razi, Ashwaq Alsoubai, Seunghyun Kim, Shiza Ali, Gianluca Stringhini, Munmun De Chowdhury, and Pamela Wisniewski. CSCW, 2023.
FirmSolo: Enabling dynamic analysis of binary Linux-based IoT kernel modulesIoannis Angelakopoulos, Gianluca Stringhini, and Manuel Egele. USENIX Security, 2023.
Non-Polar Opposites: Analyzing the Relationship Between Echo Chambers and Hostile Intergroup Interactions on RedditAlexandros Efstratiou, Jeremy Blackburn, Tristan Caulfield, Gianluca Stringhini, Savvas Zannettou, Emiliano De Cristofaro. ICWSM, 2023.
CERBERUS: Exploring Federated Prediction of Security EventsMohammad Naseri, Yufei Han, Enrico Mariconti, Yun Shen, Gianluca Stringhini, and Emiliano De Cristofaro. ACM CCS, 2022.
Why So Toxic? Measuring and Triggering Toxic Behavior in Open-Domain ChatbotsWai Man Si, Michael Backes, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, Savvas Zannettou, and Yang Zhang. ACM CCS, 2022.
Finding MNEMON: Reviving Memories of Node EmbeddingsYun Shen, Yufei Han, Zhikun Zhang, Min Chen, Ting Yu, Michael Backes, Yang Zhang, and Gianluca Stringhini. ACM CCS, 2022.
TrollMagnifier: Detecting State-Sponsored Troll Accounts on RedditMohammad Hammas Saeed, Shiza Ali, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Savvas Zannettou, and Gianluca Stringhini. OAKLAND, 2022.
A Large-scale Temporal Measurement of Android Malicious Apps: Persistence, Migration, and Lessons LearnedYun Shen, Pierre-Antoine Vervier, and Gianluca Stringhini. USENIX Security, 2022.
Understanding the Digital Lives of Youth: Analyzing Media Shared within Safe versus Unsafe Private Conversations on InstagramShiza Ali, Afsaneh Razi, Seunghyun Kim, Ashwaq Alsoubai, Joshua Gracie, Munmun De Choudhury, Pamela Wisniewski, Gianluca Stringhini. CHI, 2022.
"It is just a flu": Assessing the Effect of Watch History on YouTube's Pseudoscientific Video RecommendationsKostantinos Papadamou, Savvas Zannettou, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, and Michael Sirivianos. ICWSM 2022.
The Gospel According to Q: Understanding the QAnon Conspiracy from the Perspective of Canonical InformationMax Aliapoulios, Antonis Papasavva, Cameron Ballard, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, Savvas Zannettou, and Jeremy Blackburn. ICWSM, 2022.