Homepage - Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman

I am an Associated Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University (FIU). I also have a secondary appointment in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. I joined FIU as an Assistant Professor in Spring 2019. Before joining FIU, I was with the Department of Computer Science at Tennessee Tech University. I obtained a Ph.D. in computing and information systems from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2015 under the supervision of Prof. Ehab Al-Shaer. Previously, I received BS and MS degrees in computer science and engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, in 2004 and 2007, respectively. I lead the Analytics of Cyber Defense (ACyD) Lab at FIU. I am a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM. You can see my curriculum vitae for further information.

Contact Info:

Email: marahman [at] fiu [dot] edu
Office: EC 3955, Engineering Center

Research Areas

My primary research interest covers a wide area of security and dependability problems in cyber and cyber-physical systems (CPSs)/ Internet of Things (IoT). My research focus primarily includes:

Computer and information security analysis
Control loop security analysis
Risk assessment and security design
Resiliency analysis and hardening
Secure and dependable resource allocation

I primarily apply formal methods, artificial intelligence, and game theory in my research.

Prospective Students

The students should be comfortable with programming, algorithms, and logic, and received BS/MS with a major in Computer Science/Engineering or Electrical/Communication Engineering. Preferred qualities include scholarly publications, especially in cybersecurity, IoT/CPS, or adversarial machine learning. For further information, please go here.

News & Events

Recent .........

[March 2024] DOE has announced a $2.5M Department of Energy (DOE) award to FIU to enhance the cybersecurity of energy systems by introducing cyber and physical agility into the system. I am the Lead PI of this project, where I have partnered with collaborators at different universities, national labs, industries, and utilities.
[March 2024] Our paper titled “PAROLE: Profitable Arbitrage in Optimistic Rollup with ERC-721 Token Transactions” has been accepted for publication at the 54th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Network (DSN).
[March 2024] Our paper titled “ConFIDe: A PWM-Driven Control-Fused Intrusion Detection System” has been accepted for publication at the 19th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS).
[January 2024] Our paper titled “Formal Threat Analysis of Machine Learning-Based Control Systems: A Study on Smart Healthcare Systems” has been accepted to be published in Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks (SEGAN), Elsevier.
[January 2024] Our paper titled “Side-channel-driven Intrusion Detection System for Mission Critical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” has been accepted for publication at the International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED).
[January 2024] Our paper titled “Formal Threat Analysis of Machine Learning-Based Control Systems: A Study on Smart Healthcare Systems” has been accepted to be published in Computers & Security (COSE), Elsevier.
[November 2023] Our paper titled “Adversarial and Generative Data-Augmented Resilient Intrusion Detection Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” has been accepted to be published in the Special Session: Privacy and Security of Big Data of IEEE International Conference on Big Data.
[September 2023] I gave a talk titled “Control and Defense-Aware Attack-Resiliency Analytics for Cyber-Physical Systems” in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University.
[September 2023] I gave a talk on “Artificial Intelligence-Driven Noninvasive Security Analytics for Smart Systems” in the Systems Research Seminar Series in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University.
[September 2023] Our paper titled “Feasibility Analysis for Sybil Attacks in Shard-Based Permissionless Blockchains” has been accepted to be published in ACM Distributed Ledger Technologies.
[August 2023] Our paper, “Optimal False Data Injection Attack Against Load-Frequency Control in Power Systems,” has been accepted to be published in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security.
[August 2023] I gave a talk titled “Control-Aware Attack-Resiliency Analytics for Machine Learning-Driven Cyber-Physical Systems” in the Cyber Resilient Electric Vehicle Charging Station & Critical Infrastructure Workshop at the University of Memphis.
[August 2023] Our paper, “FAKey: Fake Hashed Key Attack on Payment Channel Networks,” has been accepted for publication at the Annual IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS).
[July 2023] I have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
[July 2023] Our paper, “Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System-Based Lightweight Intrusion Detection System for UAVs,” has been accepted to be published in the IEEE 48th Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN).
[July 2023] Our paper, “SHATTER: Control and Defense-Aware Attack Analytics for Activity-Driven Smart Home Systems,” has received the Best Paper Award in the IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2023).
[June 2023] Our paper titled “Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System-Based Lightweight Intrusion Detection System for UAVs” has been accepted to be published in the IEEE 48th Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN 2023).
[April 2023] Our paper titled “Deep Learning-based Energy Harvesting with Intelligent Deployment of RIS-assisted UAV-CFmMIMOs” has been published in the Computer Networks, Elsevier.
[March 2023] I gave a talk titled “Artificial Intelligence-Driven Control-Aware Attack-Resiliency Analytics for Power Systems” in the Workshop on A Secure & Reliable Power Grid 2050 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I also led a breakout session in the workshop on the agility-based defense for power grids.
[March 2023] Our paper titled “SHATTER: Control and Defense-Aware Attack Analytics for Activity-Driven Smart Home Systems” has been accepted to be published in the IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2023).
[February 2023] Dr. Mohammad Abdullah Al-Faruque, a Professor at the University of California, Irvine, visited our Analytics for Cyber Defense (ACyD) Lab.
[February 2023] I have received the Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP) fellowship for my project titled “Adversarial Attack Detection in Horizontal Collaboration-based Distributed Machine Learning Inference for Edge Intelligence.”

2022 .........

[October 2022] I have given a talk titled “Control-Aware Attack-Resiliency Analytics for Machine Learning-Driven Cyber-Physical Systems” in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
[September 2022] I have received a $750K award from the National Security Agency (NSA) for researching the hardware security of unmanned aerial vehicles. Along with multiple key personnel at FIU, I partnered with collaborators at the University of Florida and Auburn University on this project.
[September 2022] Our paper titled “Trajectory Synthesis for a UAV Swarm Based on Resilient Data Collection Objectives” has been accepted to be published in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM).
[September 2022] I have received an Extension Grant for my research work in the Visiting Faculty Research Program (VFRP) Fellowship at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL).
[August 2022] Our paper titled “FeD-UP: Federated Deep Reinforcement Learning-based UAV Path Planning against Hostile Defense System” has been accepted to be published in the 18th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM) Miniconference.
[August 2022] Our paper titled “Optimal False Data Injection Attacks Against Power System Frequency Stability” has been accepted to be published in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (TSG).
[June 2022] I am visiting Griffiss Institute/Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Rome, NY, on a Visiting Faculty Research Program (VFRP) fellowship.
[May 2022] Our paper titled “Optimal Improvement of Post-Disturbance Dynamic Response in Power Grids” has been accepted for presentation at the IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting (IASAM) 2022.
[May 2022] Two of our papers titled “DeepCAD: A Stand-alone Deep Neural Network-based Framework for Classification and Anomaly Detection in Smart Healthcare Systems” and “PHASE: Security Analyzer for Next Generation Smart Personalized Smart Healthcare System” have been accepted to be published in the IEEE International Conference on Digital Health (ICDH 2022). The acceptance rate is around 25%.
[April 2022] I have received a $2M Department of Energy (DOE) award to enhance the cybersecurity of America’s energy systems. Along with multiple Co-PIs at FIU, I partnered with collaborators at NCSU, UNC Charlotte, Raytheon Technologies, and Duke Energy in this project.
[April 2022] I hosted a delegation from the Bangladesh Energy and Power Research Council (BEPRC) on April 25th, 2022. The team was led by Mr. Satyajit Karmaker, Chairman, BEPRC.
[March 2022] I am serving as the TPC Co-Chair of the IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS) 2023, which will be held in Miami.
[March 2022] Our collaborative work titled “A Security Enforcement Framework for SDN Controller using Game Theoretic Approach” has been accepted in IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC).
[January 2022] Our collaborative work titled “On Algorand Transaction Fee: Challenges and Mechanism Design” has been accepted by the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2022.

2021 .........

[December 2021] We have successfully completed the NSF I-Corps program. Congratulations to Entrepreneur Leads Imtiaz and Alvi and Industry Mentor Chris!
[December 2021] Mohamadsaleh Jafari (Saleh) has successfully defended his dissertation titled “Impact-based Analytics of Cascaded False Data Injection Attacks on Smart Grids.” Congratulations to Dr. Jafari!
[October 2021] Our paper titled “Ride-Hailing for Autonomous Vehicles: Hyperledger Fabric-Based Secure and Decentralized Blockchain Platform” is accepted in the IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData 2021).
[September 2021] As a Co-PI, I have received a DOE grant titled “Consortium for Research and Education in Power and Energy Systems (CREPES) for Sustainable STEM Workforce.”
[September 2021] As a Co-PI, I have received an NSA grant titled “Automated Risk Detection and Mitigation of Devices and Apps in Smart Settings.”
[August 2021] I have received an NSF I-Corps award for exploring the implementation and commercialization of security analytics for smart healthcare systems.
[August 2021] Our paper titled “iAttackGen: Generative Synthesis of False Data Injection Attacks in Cyber-physical Systems” got accepted to be published in the 9th IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS 2021). The acceptance rate is around 28%.
[August 2021] I am serving on the TPC of IEEE Blockchain 2021.
[July 2021] Our paper titled “BIOCAD: Bio-Inspired Optimization for Classification and Anomaly Detection in Digital Healthcare Systems” is accepted to be published in the IEEE International Conference on Digital Health (ICDH 2021). The acceptance rate is around 20%.
[July 2021] I am serving on the TPC of IEEE ICC 2022.
[June 2021] Our paper titled “CURE: Enabling RF Energy Harvesting using Cell-Free Massive MIMO UAVs Assisted by RIS” is accepted to be published in the doctoral track of the IEEE 46th Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN 2021).
[May 2021] Our paper titled “iDDAF: An Intelligent Deceptive Data Acquisition Framework for Secure Cyber-physical Systems” is accepted to be published in the 17th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm 2021).
[May 2021] Our paper titled “REPlanner: Efficient UAV Trajectory-Planning using Economic Reinforcement Learning” is accepted to be published in the 7th IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP 2021).
[April 2021] Our paper titled “BIoTA: Control-Aware Attack Analytics for Building Internet of Things” is accepted to be published in the 18th IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (SECON 2021). The acceptance rate is around 26%. Congratulations to Imtiaz!
[April 2021] Our two papers have been accepted to be published in the 45th IEEE Computer Society International Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC 2021). The acceptance rate is just 27%. The titles of these papers are “DDAF: Deceptive Data Acquisition Framework against Stealthy Attacks in Cyber-Physical Systems” and “Ensemble-based Efficient Anomaly Detection for Smart Building Control Systems.”
[March 2021] Our collaborative paper titled “PrivacyGuard: Enhancing Smart Home User Privacy” is accepted to be published at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN 2021). The acceptance rate is 25%.
[February 2021] Our two papers have been accepted to be published in IEEE PES General Meeting 2021. One of the papers is about false data injection attacks against power system small-signal stability, while another one presents false relay operation attacks in power systems with high renewables.
[February 2021] Our collaborative survey paper titled “A Survey on Security and Privacy Issues in Modern Healthcare Systems: Attacks and Defenses” is accepted to be published in ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare.
[January 2021] I am serving on the TPC of IEEE COMPSAC 2021.
[January 2021] Our paper titled “Resiliency-Aware Deployment of SDN in Smart Grid SCADA: A Formal Synthesis Model” has been accepted to be published in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM).
[January 2021] Our paper titled “Strategic Defense against Stealthy Link Flooding Attacks: A Signaling Game Approach” has been accepted to be published in Transactions on Network Science and Engineering (TNSE).

2020 .........

[December 2020] I am serving on the TPCs of the Conference on Blockchain Research & Applications for Innovative Networks and Services (BRAINS) 2021.
[December 2020] I am serving as the Program Co-Chair of IEEE STPSA, a workshop in conjunction with IEEE COMPSAC 2021.
[December 2020] Shahriar has successfully defended his MS thesis.
[August 2020] Our paper on the UAV trajectory design for continuous and resilient surveillance has been accepted in the 25th International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS 2020). The acceptance rate is 25%.
[June 2020] I am serving on the TPC of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2021.
[June 2020] I received an REU Supplement ($21,000) on my NSF CRII grant. This grant will be used to support three undergraduate students at FIU to conduct research in CPS/IoT security.
[April 2020] A H M Jakaria, my student at Tennessee Tech, has successfully defended his dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Jakaria! He already accepted and joined Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Knoxville, as a Senior Engineer/Scientist.
[April 2020] Two papers from my research group have been accepted to be published in the 44th IEEE Computer Society International Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC 2020). The acceptance rate is just below 24%. The title of these papers are “G-IDS: Generative Adversarial Networks assisted Intrusion Detection System” and “WTC2: Impact-Aware Threat Analysis for Water Treatment Centers.”
[March 2020] The paper titled “On Incentive Compatible Role-based Reward Distribution in Algorand” has been accepted to be published in the 50th IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN 2020). The acceptance rate is 16.5%.
[January 2020] I am serving as a Program Co-Chair of CPS-Sec, a workshop to be held in conjunction with IEEE CNS 2020.

2019 .........

[December 2019] I am serving as the Program Co-Chair of IEEE STPSA, a workshop in conjunction with IEEE COMPSAC 2020.
[December 2019] Our collaborative work on load balancing for SDN controllers is published in Elsevier Computer Networks.
[October 2019] I am serving as a Review Editor of Frontiers in Smart Grids.
[August 2019] I am serving as an editor of EAI Transactions on Safety and Security.
[July 2019] I have given a talk on invasive and non-invasive analysis of IoT security at IEEE ISVLSI 2019.
[June 2019] I am serving on the Program Committee of MILCOM 2019.
[May 2019] Our paper titled “A Requirement-Oriented Design of NFV Topology by Formal Synthesis” has been accepted to be published in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM).
[May 2019] I have participated as a speaker in a panel on the “Internet of Things” at IEEE PELS CyberPELS Workshop 2019.
[April 2019] ARO provides $10,000 to support ACM WiSec 2019’s travel grant program.
[April 2019] Two papers from our group have been accepted to be published in IEEE COMPSAC 2019.
[April 2019] Rahat, Ryan, and Brian have successfully defended their MS theses on April 04. Sam also defended his project on the same day. Congratulations to all!
[March 2019] Our paper on power system security is accepted/published in Elsevier Computer & Security.
[February 2019] I am serving on the Program Committee of IEEE CNSM 2019.
[January 2019] I am serving as the Local Chair of ACM WiSec 2019 to be held in Miami from May 15 – 17, 2019.