Enze "Alex" Liu

Computer Security and Privacy Researcher

About Me

As of Fall 2024, I am on the faculty job market! [CV] [Research Statement (forthcoming)]

Hi, my name is Enze (pronounced like the italian name Enzo) Liu. I also go by the English name "Alex". I am a fifth-year PhD student in Computer Science at UC San Diego, where I am proud to be advised by Stefan Savage and Geoff Voelker. I am broadly interested in understanding, modeling and mitigating real-world cybercrime and abuses. My current research investigates cryptocurrency-related scams and hacks (IMC 24), and I researched email security (WWW 24 Oral, SOUPS 23, EuroS&P 23 , IMC 21) and Android stalkerware (PETS 23, IMC 20 ) in the past. In my spare time, I worked on several side projects, with topics ranging from remote memory (WORDS 23) to DNS hijacking (IMC 21) to reducing selective exposure (CSCW 24). Before starting my PhD, I spearheaded some research on passwords (S&P 19) working with David Cash and Blase Ur at the University of Chicago.

When not squashing bugs or hacking a server, I enjoy swimming, rock climbing, walking around the city (ideally, with friends), playing tennis/table tennis and hunting for great food. Occasionally, you can find me surfing at various beaches in San Diego or camping in the middle of nowhere. My hometown is Wuhan, China.

Education


University of California San Diego

PhD in Computer Science

2019.06 - Present

https://www.ucsd.edu

The University of Chicago

MS in Computer Science

2016.09 - 2018.03

https://www.uchicago.edu

University College London

Study Abroad

2015.09 - 2016.06

https://www.ucl.ac.uk

Beijing Institute of Technology

BS in Software Engineering

2012.09 - 2016.06

https://www.bit.edu.cn

La Jolla, CA
e7liu@eng.ucsd.edu
https://alexliu0809.github.io
Google Scholar
DBLP
Follow @alexliu0809

Recent News

  • [2022-08-01] Our paper that studies the functionality and insecurity of consumer android spyware apps is accepted to PETS '23!
  • [2021-08-19] Two papers are accepted to IMC '21! Stay tuned for the camera ready paper.
  • [2021-01-06] Trufflehunter is awarded IETF/IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP)! Woohoo!
  • [2020-10-26] We've released our code for Trufflehunter.
  • [2020-08-11] Trufflehunter is accepted to IMC 2020! Big congrats to our lead author Audrey.
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  • Skills

    Python, Java, C, C#, Scala, HTML, Bash

    Git, Wireshark, Spark, John the Ripper, Hashcat

    Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop