Davide Maiorca

Assistant Professor

Short CV. Davide Maiorca received from the University of Cagliari the Master of Science degree in Electronic Engineering (final mark: 110/110 magna cum laude) in 2012 and the Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science in 2016. His Ph. D. thesis was recognized by the CLUSIT (Italian Association For Computer Security) as one of the best Computer Security Italian theses in 2016. He has been working at PraLAB since 2012, and he currently holds a position as Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Cagliari. His research fields include the analysis and detection of malware in documents and multimedia applications (e.g., PDF, Microsoft Office, Flash), the detection of Android malware, and Adversarial Machine Learning. From November 2013 to April 2014, he was a Visiting Student at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, in the System Security group guided by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Holz, where he worked on reverse engineering techniques for Android applications. From January to February 2020, he has been Visiting Researcher at the Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic).

Dr. Maiorca has been serving as a Program Committee member and reviewer for international conferences and journals. He has covered the role of Project Manager at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in various projects funded by the Regional Sardinian Administration together with the Innovery SpA company (PISDAS - Piattaforma Integrata Servizi Digitali Avanzati Sicuri; INCLOSEC - Servizi Innovativi di Sicurezza In Cloud; INN-BEDAE - Innovery Big Energy Data Analytics Efficiency). From 2013 to 2015, he was the chair of the IEEE Cagliari Student Branch and of its Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society (SMC) Chapter. Since 2020, he is responsible for the CyberChallenge.it project for the University of Cagliari.

Since 2019, he has been teaching the Web Security & Malware Analysis course (Master of Science in Computer Engineering, CyberSecurity, and Artificial Intelligence). Besides, he also works as a technical consultant for legal activities, and he is co-lecturer of the Computer Forensics Techniques course (Master Degree in Computer Engineering, CyberSecurity, and Artificial Intelligence).

He is a member of IEEE, Computer Society, SMC, ACM, and CVPL (ex-GIRPR - Gruppo Italiano Ricercatori Pattern Recognition).

Full CV (last update: 03/08/2020)

Publications

Research Interests

Malware Detection in PDF Files

Malware Detection in Microsoft Office Files

Malware Detection in Javascript and Actionscript Files

Malware Detection in Android Systems

Adversarial Machine Learning

Activities for Conferences and Journals

ACM SAC 2018, 2019, 2020 (IoT Track - Program Committee)

ACM AISEC 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 (Program Committee)

IEEE Transactions on Secure and Dependable Computing (Reviewer)

Future Generation Computer Systems, Elsevier (Reviewer)

International Journal on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, Elsevier (Reviewer)

Journal of Information Security and Applications, Elsevier (Reviewer)

1st Italian Conference on CyberSecurity - ITASEC '17 (Sub-Reviewer)

Pervasive Mobile Computing, Elsevier (Reviewer)

IEEE Security and Privacy 2016 (Student Program Committee)

AISEC 2015 (Sub-Reviewer)

Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier (Reviewer)

Computers and Security, Elsevier (Reviewer)

Applied Computing and Informatics, Elsevier (Reviewer)

Security Informatics (Reviewer)

Teaching Activities

Teaching assistant for the course "Calcolatori Elettronici" (prof. Fabio Roli, Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy), A.Y. 2011-2012.

Teaching assistant for the course "Sistemi Operativi" (prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science in Electronic/Communications Engineering). A.Y. 2014-2015.

Teaching assistant for the course "Sistemi Operativi" (prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science in Electronic/Communications Engineering). A.Y. 2015-2016.

Teaching assistant for the course "Sicurezza Informatica" (prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science in Electronic/Communications Engineering). A.Y. 2015-2016.

Teacher for the Mobile Forensics Seminar. A.A. 2015-2016 (Master of Science in Electronic Engineering)

Teaching assistant for the course "Sistemi Operativi" (prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science in Electronic/Communications Engineering). A.Y. 2016-2017.

Teaching assistant for the course "Computer Security" (prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science in Electronic/Communications Engineering). A.Y. 2016-2017.

Teacher for the Mobile Forensics Seminar. A.A. 2016-2017 (Master of Science in Electronic Engineering)

Teaching assistant for the "Sistemi Operativi" (prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science in Electronic/Communications Engineering ). A.A. 2017-2018.

Lecturer of the course "Web Security and Malware Analysis" (60 hours - Master of Science in Computer Engineering, CyberSecurity and Artificial Intelligence), A.A. 2019-2020.

Co-Lecturer of the course "Computer Forensics Techniques" (Master of Science in Computer Engineering, CyberSecurity and Artificial Intelligence), A.A. 2019-2020.

Activities for Bachelor/Master of Science Thesis

Giuseppe Malandrone, Studio e Sviluppo di un Rilevatore di Attacchi Avanzati Basati su PowerShell. Master of Science in Telecommunications Engineering, A.Y. 2018-2019. (Advisor)

Laura Pucci, A Study of Machine Learning-Based Android Malware Detectors. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, A.Y. 2018-2019. (Co-Advisor)

Lorenzo Mulas, Studio ed analisi di applicazioni grayware nella piattaforma Android. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, A.Y. 2018-2019. (Co-Advisor)

Fabrizio Cara, Malware Stealth: Studio e Creazione di Attacchi Evasivi Contro Dispositivi Android. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science in Telecommunications Engineering, A.Y. 2017-2018. (Co-Advisor)

Michele Scalas, Study and Development of an Android Application for Automatic Ransomware Detection. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria delle Telecomunicazioni, A.Y. 2017-2018. (Co-Advisor)

Alessandro Medda, Studio e sviluppo di un analizzatore avanzato per la rilevazione di attacchi Flash. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science, Telecommunications Engineering, A.Y. 2015-2016. (Co-Advisor)

Efisio Caschili, Studio ed Implementazione di un sistema di Pattern Recognition per la rilevazione di malware Office. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science, Telecommunications Engineering, A.Y. 2014-2015. (Co-Advisor)

Maria Elena Chiappe, Static Analysis and Detection of Malicious ActionScript Files through Structural and Content-Based Analysis. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Bachelor of Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, A.Y. 2014-2015. (Co-Advisor)

Marco Aresu, Studio e Sperimentazione di Tecniche Avanzate per l'Evasione di Rilevatori di Malware nel Sistema Operativo Android. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science, Telecommunications Engineering , A.Y. 2013-2014. (Co-Advisor)

Simone Moro, Attacchi avanzati su piattaforma Android: studio, sviluppo e implementazione di software deliberatamente vulnerabile. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science, Telecommunications Engineering , A.Y. 2012-2013. (Co-Advisor)

Luigi Meloni, Analisi e Rilevazione di Malware Offuscati per Dispositivi Android. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science, Electronic Engineering, A.Y. 2012-2013. (Co-Advisor)

Antonio Cau, Studio delle caratteristiche di funzionamento e degli strumenti di rilevazione delle Mobile Botnets. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Bachelor of Science, Electronic Engineering, A.Y. 2012-2013. (Co-Advisor)

Roberta Mameli, Studio e sperimentazione di tecniche per l’evasione di rilevatori di files PDF maligni. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Bachelor of Science, Electronic Engineering, A.Y. 2012-2013. (Co-Advisor)

Mauro Marongiu, Studio e sviluppo di un sistema per la rilevazione di Malware Javascript. Advisor: prof. Giorgio Giacinto. Master of Science, Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy. A.Y. 2011-2012. (Co-Advisor)

Applications

Contacts

E-mail: davide.maiorca(at)unica.it

Phone: +39 070 675 5758

Fax: +39 070 675 5782

Address: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari - Piazza d'Armi 09123 Cagliari

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Davide Maiorca