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Email: first.last at kuleuven.beAbout Me
Hey there! I'm Vera and I work as a Research Expert at the DistriNet group in KU Leuven, Belgium, where I conduct and lead research activities in the intersection of security, privacy and AI. I study data-driven security; network security; privacy-enhancing technologies; applied machine learning and deep learning; trustworthiness of data-driven AI. My published research revolves around studying deep learning as a threat against anonymous communication, and various aspects of AI-enabled network intrusion detection and authentication.
I am generally interested in developing comprehensive understanding, reasonable expectations and mitigation of risks of data-driven AI in the ICT context. The driving force behind my work is exploring the optimal role of AI in our society, in the age of uncontrolled data collection and inference, while balancing its benefits and pitfalls.
Recent News
- July 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!
- July 2024 Together with Lieven Desmet, I've presented an overview on "Cybersecurity & AI" at the COSIC course in Leuven.
- June 2024 I returned to SecAppDev after 7 years to give a talk on "Vulnerabilities of Large Language Model Applications" to practitioners.
- March 2024 I had the pleasure to give a lecture on "Vulnerabilities of Large Language Models" to Master's students at the University of Edinburgh.
- February 2024 Save the date! On September 10-13, together with Wouter Joosen, Fabio Roli and Lorenzo Cavallaro, I will co-organize the 3rd Edition of Summer School on Security & Privacy in the age of AI. Applications open on June 1.
- July 2022 Presented our Trace Oddity paper on traffic correlation attacks on Tor at PETS in Sydney (pre-recorded presentation). -->
Selected Publications
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Ilias Tsingenopoulos, Vera Rimmer, Davy Preuveneers, Fabio Pierazzi, Lorenzo Cavallaro, Wouter Joosen
On Adaptive Decision-Based Attacks and Defenses (Extended Abstract), Deep Learning Security and Privacy Workshop (DLSP), 2024.
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Vera Rimmer, Theodor Schnitzler, Tom Van Goethem, Abel Rodríguez Romero, Wouter Joosen, Katharina Kohls
Trace Oddity: Methodologies for Data-Driven Traffic Analysis on Tor, Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PoPETS), 2022.
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Ali Shafiei, Vera Rimmer, Ilias Tsingenopolous, Lieven Desmet, Wouter Joosen
Positiong Paper: on Advancing Adversarial Malware Generation using Dynamic Features, Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Robust Malware Analysis (WoRMA), 2022.
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Vera Rimmer, Azqa Nadeem, Sicco Verver, Davy Preuveneers, Wouter Joosen
Open-World Network Intrusion Detection." Security and Artificial Intelligence, Springer, p. 254-283, 2022.
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Gints Engelen, Vera Rimmer, Wouter Joosen
Troubleshooting an Intrusion Detection Dataset: The CICIDS2017 Case Study, IEEE Security and Privacy Workshops, Workshop on Traffic Measurement and Classification (WTMC), 2020.
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Vera Rimmer, Davy Preuveneers, Marc Juarez, Tom Van Goethem, Wouter Joosen
Automated Website Fingerprinting through Deep Learning, Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2018.
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Giuseppe Garofalo, Vera Rimmer, Tim Van hamme, Davy Preuveneers, Wouter Joseen
Fishy Faces: Crafting Adversarial Images to Poison Face Authentication, USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT), 2018.
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Davy Preuveneers, Vera Rimmer, Ilias Tsingenopolous, Jan Spooren, Wouter Joosen, Elisabeth Ilie-Zudor
Chained Anomaly Detection Models for Federated Learning: An Intrusion Detection Case Study, Applied Sciences, vol. 8, num. 12, p. 1-21, 2018.
Selected Academic Service
- Technical Program Committee member PoPETS (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022), ACM CCS (2024), ACNS (2024), IEEE Euro S&P (2022, 2021, 2020), WISEC (2023, 2022), AISEC (2024, 2023), MLCS (2024, 2023), SecTL (2024, 2023), SECURWARE (2023), S2RAI, WPES (2024, 2020), NSPW (2020).
- External reviewer PoPETS (2022), IEEE Euro S&P (2019).
- Journal reviewerIEEE TDSC, IEEE TIFS, Computer Networks
- Session chair PoPETS (2024, 2023), IEEE Euro S&P (2024, 2022, 2021, 2020).
- Co-organizing chair WoRMA (2024), PhD Summer School on Security and Privacy in the Age of AI (2024, 2023)
Teaching and Mentoring
Teaching Assistance
- Bachelor 2016-2021Computer Architecture and Software Systems.
- Bachelor 2016-2018Object-Oriented Programming
Master Theses (Co-)Supervision
- Joren Van HeckeMethods matter: improving evaluation methodologies for deep learning based Tor website fingerprinting attacks, 2023.
- Sander PrenenEfficient and evasive distributed adversarial attacks using particle swarm optimization, 2022.
- Simon TasEnhancing machine learning for security applications with active learning, 2022.
- Jonathan CraessaertsA more efficient way to detect volumetric attacks using flow aggregation and deep learning, 2022.
- Mattias VanderwegenAttribution of malicious cyber incidents with neural networks, 2022.
- Abel Rodríguez RomeroDeep unsupervised network anomaly detection in real traffic flows, 2020.
- Arno StienaersAdversarial examples against network intrusion detection systems in feature space, 2020.
- Andreas Vande VoordeAutomating black-box adversarial attacks, 2020.
- Rik PauwelsDefenses against black-box adversarial attacks with reinforcement learning, 2020.
- Maarten CraeynestMorphed face generation using generative adversarial networks, 2019.
- Tom GijselinckSecuring self-sovereign identity to prevent impersonation of digital identity, 2019.
- Pieter ClaerhoutAccess control in evolving threat landscapes, 2019.
- Myriam Van ErumInterpretable log analysis with deep learning, 2019.
- Jin LiSequence-based intrusion detection with recurrent neural networks, 2019.
- Nicolas FinnéOpen set recognition of network intrusions, 2018.
- Giuseppe GarofaloExploring poisoning attacks against a face recognition system, 2018.
- Marco FarinettiEvasion attacks against ensemble-learning based behavioral authentication, 2018.
Teaching Assistance
- Bachelor 2016-2021Computer Architecture and Software Systems.
- Bachelor 2016-2018Object-Oriented Programming