Vera Rimmer

I conduct and lead research activities at the intersection of security, privacy, and AI. Our team explores data analytics in network intrusion and malware detection, privacy-enhancing technologies, and trustworthiness of data-driven AI in the wider ICT context. The driving force behind my work is examining the optimal role of technology, particularly AI, in our society while balancing its benefits and challenges. In this age of surveillance and uncontrolled data collection and inference, I am committed to developing a comprehensive understanding, forming reasonable expectations, and devising effective strategies to mitigate the risks of applied AI.

Beyond academic research, our team is committed to sharing scientific knowledge through direct collaboration with industry. We work with companies seeking practical guidance on how to safely and securely leverage modern AI technologies, such as deep learning, foundation models, and large language models, to meet their needs.

What's new?

Dec 20, 2024	Our 4th Workshop on Rethinking Malware Analysis (WoRMA) is accepted to appear at IEEE EuroS&P 2025 in Vienna, Austria! Co-chaired with Fabio Pierazzi and Simone Aonzo.
Sep 27, 2024	I gave a keynote at The Security and Trustworthiness of AI workshop in the Netherlands on “The Ambivalence of Deep Learning in Cybersecurity: Balancing Promises and Pitfalls”.
Sep 13, 2024	We at KU Leuven organized a successful 3rd edition of the Summer School on Security & Privacy in the age of AI.
Jul 01, 2024	Fabio Pierazzi, Savino Dambra, and I organized the 3rd Workshop on Rethinking Malware Analysis (WoRMA) co-located with IEEE EuroS&P 2024 in Vienna!
Jul 01, 2024	Together with Lieven Desmet, I presented an overview on “Cybersecurity & AI” at the COSIC course in Leuven.

Selected publications

SatML

SoK: On the offensive potential of AI

Saskia Laura Schröer, Giovanni Apruzzese, Soheil Human, Pavel Laskov, Hyrum S Anderson, Edward WN Bernroider, and 10 more authors

In 3rd IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning, 2025

arXiv Bib

@inproceedings{schroer2025sok,
  title = {SoK: On the offensive potential of AI},
  author = {Schröer, Saskia Laura and Apruzzese, Giovanni and Human, Soheil and Laskov, Pavel and Anderson, Hyrum S and Bernroider, Edward WN and Fass, Aurore and Nassi, Ben and Rimmer, Vera and Roli, Fabio and Salam, Samer and Shen, Ashley and Sunyaev, Ali and Wadwha-Brown, Tim and Wagner, Isabel and Wang, Gang},
  booktitle = {3rd IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning},
  year = {2025},
}

arXiv

Adversarial Markov Games: On Adaptive Decision-Based Attacks and Defenses

Ilias Tsingenopoulos, Vera Rimmer, Davy Preuveneers, Fabio Pierazzi, Lorenzo Cavallaro, and Wouter Joosen

arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.13435, 2023

arXiv Bib

@article{tsingenopoulos2023adversarial,
  title = {Adversarial Markov Games: On Adaptive Decision-Based Attacks and Defenses},
  author = {Tsingenopoulos, Ilias and Rimmer, Vera and Preuveneers, Davy and Pierazzi, Fabio and Cavallaro, Lorenzo and Joosen, Wouter},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.13435},
  year = {2023},
}

PETS

Trace Oddity: Methodologies for Data-Driven Traffic Analysis on Tor

Vera Rimmer, Theodor Schnitzler, Tom Van Goethem, Abel Rodrı́guez Romero, Wouter Joosen, and Katharina Kohls

Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2022

Bib

@article{rimmer2022trace,
  title = {Trace Oddity: Methodologies for Data-Driven Traffic Analysis on Tor},
  author = {Rimmer, Vera and Schnitzler, Theodor and Van Goethem, Tom and Romero, Abel Rodr{\'\i}guez and Joosen, Wouter and Kohls, Katharina},
  journal = {Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies},
  volume = {3},
  pages = {314--335},
  year = {2022},
}

WoRMA

Position Paper: On Advancing Adversarial Malware Generation Using Dynamic Features

Ali Shafiei, Vera Rimmer, Ilias Tsingenopoulos, Lieven Desmet, and Wouter Joosen

In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Robust Malware Analysis, 2022

Bib

@inproceedings{shafiei2022position,
  title = {Position Paper: On Advancing Adversarial Malware Generation Using Dynamic Features},
  author = {Shafiei, Ali and Rimmer, Vera and Tsingenopoulos, Ilias and Desmet, Lieven and Joosen, Wouter},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Robust Malware Analysis},
  pages = {15--20},
  year = {2022},
}

Springer

Open-World Network Intrusion Detection

Vera Rimmer, Azqa Nadeem, Sicco Verwer, Davy Preuveneers, and Wouter Joosen

In Security and Artificial Intelligence: A Crossdisciplinary Approach, 2022

Bib

@incollection{rimmer2022open,
  title = {Open-World Network Intrusion Detection},
  author = {Rimmer, Vera and Nadeem, Azqa and Verwer, Sicco and Preuveneers, Davy and Joosen, Wouter},
  booktitle = {Security and Artificial Intelligence: A Crossdisciplinary Approach},
  pages = {254--283},
  year = {2022},
  publisher = {Springer},
}

WTMC

Troubleshooting an intrusion detection dataset: the CICIDS2017 case study

Gints Engelen, Vera Rimmer, and Wouter Joosen

In 2021 IEEE Security and Privacy Workshops (SPW), 2021

Bib

@inproceedings{engelen2021troubleshooting,
  title = {Troubleshooting an intrusion detection dataset: the CICIDS2017 case study},
  author = {Engelen, Gints and Rimmer, Vera and Joosen, Wouter},
  booktitle = {2021 IEEE Security and Privacy Workshops (SPW)},
  pages = {7--12},
  year = {2021},
  organization = {IEEE},
}

NDSS

Automated Website Fingerprinting through Deep Learning

Vera Rimmer, Davy Preuveneers, Marc Juarez, Tom Van Goethem, and Wouter Joosen

In Proceedings of the 25nd Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS 2018), 2018

Bib

@inproceedings{rimmer2018automated,
  title = {Automated Website Fingerprinting through Deep Learning},
  author = {Rimmer, Vera and Preuveneers, Davy and Juarez, Marc and Van Goethem, Tom and Joosen, Wouter},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25nd Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS 2018)},
  year = {2018},
  organization = {Internet Society},
}

WOOT

Fishy faces: Crafting adversarial images to poison face authentication

In 12th USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT 18), 2018

Bib

@inproceedings{garofalo2018fishy,
  title = {Fishy faces: Crafting adversarial images to poison face authentication},
  author = {},
  booktitle = {12th USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT 18)},
  year = {2018},
}