Data-driven Network and cyber Security (DANS) Lab

Research

• We work on various topics in data-driven network and cyber security. In the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape, we are dedicated to developing cutting-edge cyber security solutions for recent cyber threats. Defender models should account for potential attacks to enhance their robustness. We thus study the cybersecurity lifecycle. How can we attack the given model and evade detection? How can we protect our system against threats? Recent research topics include security in federated learning, compromised entity detection in mobile networks and enterprise logs, malicious domain detection, phone fraud, spam detection in online forums, and attack/defenses against machine learning models.

  We are always looking for highly motivated students who are passionate about data-driven cybersecurity research. If you are interested in our group, read this instruction.

Current Students

Graduate Students

• Mark Holmstrom, PhD Student, Fall 2026 - Present

• Kushankur Ghosh (with Joerg Sander), PhD Student, Winter 2024 - Present, Homepage

Undergraduate Students

• Prisha Sarna, Undergraduate Student, Fall 2025 - Present

• Chloe Kim, Undergraduate Student, Fall 2025 - Present

RA

• Mark Holmstrom, MSc, Spring/Summer 2026

• Kelsey Pattison, Undergraduate Student, NSERC USRA, Spring/Summer 2026

• Dinara Shukayeva, Undergraduate Student, NSERC USRA, Spring/Summer 2026

• Prisha Sarna, Undergraduate Student, Spring/Summer 2026

Past Students

Graduate Students

• Mark Holmstrom, MSc Student, Winter 2024 - Winter 2026 -> PhD student at University of Alberta

  MSc Thesis: "Adaptively Poisoning Federated Learning Through Hybrid Action Space Deep Reinforcement Learning"

• Wenhao You, Course-based MSc Student (University of Waterloo), Fall 2024 - Winter 2025 -> RBC Borealis

• Abdullah Al Omar (with Omid Ardakanian), MSc Student, Winter 2023 - Fall 2024, Homepage

  MSc Thesis: "Efficient Privacy-Preserving Cross-Silo Federated Learning with Multi-Key Homomorphic Encryption"

Undergraduate Students

• Mehar Klair, Undergraduate Student, RA, Spring 2025 - Fall 2025

• Kian Kyars, Undergraduate Student, Fall 2024 - Winter 2025

• Prateek Annam, Undergraduate Student , Fall 2023 - Fall 2024

• Wenhao You, Undergraduate Student, Winter 2024 -> MSc student at University of Waterloo

RA

• Stephanny Sanchez, RA (MSc in National University of Engineering, Peru), Summer/Fall 2025

• Mehar Klair, Undergraduate Student, RA, Summer 2025

• Kashish Gupta, Undergraduate Student, RA, Spring/Summer 2025

• Negar Mirgati, RA (Received MSc. from UA), Spring 2025

• Kian Kyars, RA (Received B.Sc. from UA), Spring 2025

• Anisha Sethumadhavan, RA (Received B.Sc. from UA), Winter 2024