About Me

Hi, my name is Enze (pronounced like the italian name Enzo) Liu. I also go by the English name "Alex". I am currently a "free-range" postdoc (meaning I have more projects without my host than with my host) at CMU's CyLab hosted by the affable Nicolas Christin. I received my PhD in Computer Science from UC San Diego and am incredibly proud to be advised by Stefan Savage and Geoff Voelker. I am broadly interested in scams, fraud, abuse, and misuse in real-world systems, with a focus on empirically understanding how such systems are and can be abused in practice and how to better secure them. Concretely, my research spans several topics, including phishing and email security (S&P 26a, S&P 26b, WWW 24 Oral, SOUPS 23, EuroS&P 23 , IMC 21), cryptocurrency-related scams and hacks (IMC 24), Android stalkerware (PETS 23, IMC 20 ), and AI scrapers(IMC 25). 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. My (often outdated) CV can be found here.

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. I used to (and would like continue in the future if possible) spend a fair amount of time surfing at various beaches in San Diego or camping in the middle of nowhere. My hometown is Wuhan, China.