WSPR Members

William Enck is the Goodnight Distinguished Professor in Security Sciences in the Department of Computer Science at the North Carolina State University where he is co-director of the Secure Computing Institute (SCI) and director of the Wolfpack Security and Privacy Research (WSPR) laboratory. Prof. Enck’s research interests span the broad area of systems security with applications to the software supply chain, 5G and cloud infrastructure, mobile platforms, Internet of Things (IoT), and networks. In particular, his work in mobile application security has led to significant consumer awareness and changes to platforms, as well as a SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award. He is currently serving as Vice President of the USENIX Board of Directors and on the steering committee of the USENIX Security Symposium. He was program co-chair of the 2018 USENIX Security Symposium and the 2024 and 2025 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P). Prior to joining NC State, Prof. Enck earned his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S in Computer Science and Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2011, 2006, and 2004, respectively. Prof. Enck is a member of the ACM, IEEE, ISSA, and USENIX.”

Anupam Das is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. His research broadly spans security and privacy, with a focus on designing secure and privacy-preserving technologies. His work aims to understand and mitigate emerging risks in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT) and generative AI. More recently, he has been developing techniques and systems that not only assess security, privacy, and safety challenges but also improve transparency and user control over how personal data is collected and used by emerging technologies. Prior to joining NC State, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2016 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was a recipient of Fulbright Science and Technology fellowship. He previously served as an Assistant Professor in the department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Alexandros Kapravelos is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at NC State University. He received his PhD in Computer Science from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2015. His research interests span the areas of systems and software security. Currently, he studies how the web changes on the client side via browser extensions and how we can protect the browser from malicious client-side attacks. He is also interested in Internet privacy and browser fingerprinting specifically, where he is working on making Internet users less distinctive while they browse the web. He is the lead developer of Wepawet, a publicly available system that detects drive-by downloads with the use of an emulated browser, Revolver, a system that detects evasive drive-by download attempts, and Hulk, a browser extension analysis system.

Brad Reaves is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. His research seeks to identify, characterize, and confront the root causes of the most prominent and visible problems in computer security. He is best known for his work on cellular and telephone network security, but he also has produced key results on the security of software ecosystems, local networks, and communicating security information to humans. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award, the 2020 Internet Defense Prize, seven distinguished paper awards, and three patents.

Dominik Wermke is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. His research interests center around empowering software experts to design, develop, and deploy secure, privacy-respecting, and trust-worthy software. His general areas of research are in usable security & privacy, software supply chain security & transparency, the open source ecosystem, and supporting software experts in designing secure and user-friendly systems. Prior to joining NC State, Dominik was a researcher at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security and part of the TeamUSEC research group for human-centered security. He received his Dr. rer. nat. (PhD equivalent) in computer science from Leibniz University Hannover in 2023 and both a M.Sc. and B.Sc. from Saarland University in 2016 and 2015 respectively.

Laurie Williams is a Goodnight Distinguished University Professor in the Computer Science Department of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Laurie is a co-director of the NCSU Secure Computing Institute (SCI) and the NCSU Science of Security Lablet. Laurie’s research focuses on software security and secure software supply chain. She is an associate editor-in-chief of the IEEE Security and Privacy magazine. Laurie is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Fellow. Laurie has a BS in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University, an MBA from Duke University, and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah.

Sivana Hamer is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University, a Google Ph.D. Fellow and Goodnight Ph.D. Fellow. She is advised by Dr. Laurie Williams and Dr. William Enck. She joined the WSPR lab in Fall 2023. She currently researches the state of software supply chain security community to help improve the security posture of industry and open-source projects. She obtained her M.S. and B.S. from the University of Costa Rica.

Aafaq Sabir is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at NCSU supervised by Dr. Anupam Das. His research interests lie in web security and privacy. He is currently working on analyzing and mitigating security and privacy problems in smart home devices and voice assistants. His research involves understanding the gap between a user’s mental model and system behavior, detecting and regulating advertisements in smart home devices, and analyzing online tracking technology across different platforms, among other aspects. Before joining NCSU, he graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 2020.

Abhinaya S B is a Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Anupam Das and joined the WSPR lab in Fall 2022. Her research interests include usable security and privacy in emerging computing technologies, specifically focusing on VR privacy. She earned her Bachelor’s in Computer Science from NIT Trichy, India, in 2019. She worked as a Software Architect at Qualcomm for three years before starting grad school.

Aleksandr Nahapetyan is a Ph.D. student co-advised by Dr. Bradley Reaves and Dr. Alexandros Kapravelos. He is interested in reverse engineering, threat intelligence, online phishing and spam, and web security. He is working on studying the phishing ecosystem from different vantage points, studying the phenomena as a group of operations instead of individual cases; in his free time, he competes as part of NC State’s CTF team HackPack.

Alex is a PhD student advised by Dr. Dominik Wermke. His research focuses on normative and conceptual issues in computer security, drawing on computer and information ethics, moral philosophy, philosophy of science and technology, and bioethics.

David Adei is a Computer Science Ph.D. Candidate at NC State University, advised by Dr. Bradley Reaves. His research interests include applied cryptography, security engineering, and distributed systems, with a focus on privacy-preserving technologies for telephone networks. His 2024 paper, “Jäger: Automated Telephone Call Traceback,” received a Distinguished Paper Award and a Distinguished Artifact Award at the ACM CCS. Before starting his Ph.D. in 2022, David worked for seven years as a software engineer in several senior roles. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science with First Class Honors from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Elizabeth Lin is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. Elizabeth joined the WSPR lab in 2022 and is being advised by Dr. William Enck. She is currently focusing on software supply chain security. Before joining NCSU, Elizabeth received her B.S. in Computer Science in 2022 from National Chengchi University.

Greg Tystahl is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. Greg joined the WSPR lab in 2022 and is being co-advised by Drs. William Enck and Alex Kapravelos. He is currently focusing on software supply chain security. Before joining NCSU, Greg received his B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics in 2022 from Buena Vista University.

Imranur Rahman started his PhD in 2022 and joined the WSPR lab in 2023. He is being advised by Dr. Laurie Williams and currently focusing on software supply chain security. Before joining NCSU, Imranur received his B.Sc. in Computer Science in 2018 from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Before starting his PhD, he worked at Samsung Research for 3.5 years where he developed Chromium-based mobile browser for Samsung smartphones.

Jill Marley is a PhD student in Computer Science at North Carolina State University, advised by Dr. Laurie Williams. She joined the WSPR lab in Fall 2024. Her research focuses on software engineering and software security, particularly in the domain of software supply chain security. She obtained her M.S. and B.S. from Wake Forest University, where she studied statistics.

Jonah Ghebremichael is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. He joined the WSPR lab in Fall 2023 and is being co-advised by Dr. William Enck and Dr. Alex Kapravelos. His current focus is on software supply chain security. Jonah received his B.S. in Computer Science from NC State in 2023.

Junhua Su is currently a Ph.D. student in the WSPR lab advised by Dr. Kapravelos. He received his B.S. in Computer Science and minor in Physics from NC State University in 2021. He is currently working on web measurement and browser fingerprinting. He is also interested in privacy analytics in the web and browser.

Mahzabin Tamanna is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. Mahzabin joined the WSPR Lab in the Fall of 2022 and is being advised by Dr. Laurie Williams. She is currently focusing on software supply chain security and aiding software developers in designing secure and intuitive systems. Before joining NCSU, Mahzabin received her B.S. in Computer Science and Software Engineering from American International University-Bangladesh and her MS in computer science from North Carolina A&T State University.

Md Atiqur Rahman is a PhD student advised by Dr. Alexandros Kapravelos. He joined the WSPR lab in Fall 2024. He completed his B.Sc in Computer Science and Engineering in 2022 from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and worked as a backend software engineer at IQVIA for two years. His research interests focus on the intersection of security, software engineering, and generative AI, with a current emphasis on software supply chain security.

Md Jakaria is a Ph.D. Student advised by Dr. Anupam Das. He joined the WSPR lab in 2021. His focus lies in exploring privacy and security aspects within the IoT domain. His ongoing project involves the comprehensive analysis of network traffic originating from smart home devices on a large scale. Before joining NC State, Jakaria was a lecturer at MIST, Dhaka. He earned his B.Sc. in CSE from BUET in 2018.

Md. Nazmul Haque is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at North Carolina State University, where he began his doctoral studies in Fall 2024 under the supervision of Dr. Laurie Williams. His research focuses on software supply chain security, with an emphasis on advancing secure development practices and mitigating emerging threats. He previously completed both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

I joined the WSPR Lab in Fall 2024. My research examines how large language models can strengthen browser security and privacy, with a focus on practical safeguards and real-world impact. I earned my B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2022, then spent two years as a lecturer at BRAC University.

Seaver is a PhD student advised by Dr. William Enck in the Department of Computer Science at NCSU. Seaver joined the WSPR lab in 2020. His current focus is in 5G Cellular Network Security, but has other research interests in OS and network security. He received his M.S in Computer Science from NC State in 2020 and his B.S in Computer Science from East Carolina University in 2018.

Sohom Datta is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. He worked at the WSPR lab in Spring 2023 as a research intern and then subsequently re-joined as a PhD student in Fall 2024. He is being advised by Dr. Alex Kapravelos. His current focus is on understanding the web privacy and security landscape. Sohom received his Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology in India in 2023. When he is not staring at (web) browsers, Sohom likes to edit Wikipedia and contribute to open-source projects.

Tanmay Pardeshi is a PhD student in Computer Science at North Carolina State University, advised by Dr. Laurie Williams. His research focuses on software engineering and software security. He is currently working in the domain of software supply chain security. He earned his Master’s in Computer Science at NC State and a Bachelor’s in Engineering from Pune Institute of Computer Technology. Before graduate school, he worked as a software developer at Avaya. Outside of research, he enjoys soccer, swimming, and being outdoors.