Assistant Professor, CCI Faculty Fellow Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech Email: penggao [at] vt [dot] edu Openings: We are looking for highly motivated students (including PhDs, Masters, undergraduates), postdocs, and visitors/interns to join our group. If you are interested, please send an email to penggao90 [at] gmail [dot] com with your CV. (To prospective students: Due to the large number of email messages we receive, we cannot respond to each message individually. We will gladly respond to email messages from students who have demonstrated the effort to better understand our research.)

Bio

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. During 2019-2021, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley (with Dawn Song). I received my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University (with Prateek Mittal and Sanjeev R. Kulkarni) in 2019. I received my B.E. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2013.

I am broadly interested in security, privacy, and systems. My research focuses on creating scalable, intelligent, secure, and trustworthy systems to solve real-world challenges. My current interests include the domains of threat protection, threat intelligence, blockchain, trustworthy AI, and privacy-preserving systems. My research draws on techniques from machine learning, natural language processing, program analysis, and network science.

Latest News

• [12/2021] Our paper "A Knowledge Base Question Answering System for Cyber Threat Knowledge Acquisition" has been accepted at ICDE 2022 Demonstrations Track!
• [12/2021] Our proposal has received the 2021-22 VT New Faculty Mentoring Grant (Sole PI)!
• [12/2021] Our proposal has been selected as a finalist for the 2021 Meta (Facebook) Research Award (Co-PI)!
• [11/2021] Our proposal has received the 2021 4-VA Collaborative Research Grant (PI)!
• [10/2021] Our proposal has received the 2021 Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Cybersecurity Research Collaboration Grant (PI)!
• [10/2021] Our proposal has received the 2021 Cisco Research Award (Sole PI)!
• [10/2021] Our paper "PrivGuard: Privacy Regulation Compliance Made Easier" has been accepted at USENIX Security 2022!
• [08/2021] Our paper "Back-Propagating System Dependency Impact for Attack Investigation" has been accepted at USENIX Security 2022!
• [07/2021] Our proposal has received the 2021 Google Cloud Research Credits Award (Sole PI)!
• [05/2021] Our paper "Make Web3.0 Connected" has been accepted at IEEE TDSC 2021!

Selected Awards & Honors

• Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Faculty Fellow, 2021 - 2022
• Finalist for the Meta (Facebook) Research Award, 2021
• Cisco Research Award, 2021
• Google Cloud Research Credits Award, 2021
• Amazon Research Award (ARA), 2020
• Microsoft Security AI Research Award, 2020
• Top-10 Finalist in the CSAW Best Applied Research Paper Competition, 2018
• CSAW Travel Award, 2018
• Princeton University SEAS Travel Grant, 2018
• IEEE CNS NSF Student Travel Grant Award, 2018
• Princeton University First Year Fellowship in Natural Sciences and Engineering, 2013
• Outstanding Graduate of Shanghai, 2013
• Li & Fung Scholarship, 2012
• National Scholarship, 2011
• UM-SJTU JI Distinguished Academic Achievement Award, 2011
• National Scholarship, 2010
• UM-SJTU JI Distinguished Academic Achievement Award, 2010
• SJTU First-Class Academic Excellence Scholarship, 2010

Publications

• PrivGuard: Privacy Regulation Compliance Made Easier   [source]
  Lun Wang, Usmann Khan, Joseph P. Near, Qi Pang, Jithendaraa Subramanian, Neel Somani, Peng Gao, Andrew Low, Dawn Song
  USENIX Security, August 2022
  
• Back-Propagating System Dependency Impact for Attack Investigation   [source]
  Pengcheng Fang*, Peng Gao* (* equal contribution), Changlin Liu, Erman Ayday, Kangkook Jee, Ting Wang, Yanfang (Fanny) Ye, Zhuotao Liu, Xusheng Xiao
  USENIX Security, August 2022
  
• A Knowledge Base Question Answering System for Cyber Threat Knowledge Acquisition
  Zhengjie Ji, Edward Choi, Peng Gao
  ICDE Demonstrations Track, May 2022
• Make Web3.0 Connected
  Zhuotao Liu, Yangxi Xiang, Jian Shi, Peng Gao, Haoyu Wang, Xusheng Xiao, Bihan Wen, Qi Li, Yih-Chun Hu
  IEEE TDSC, 2021
  
• A System for Automated Open-Source Threat Intelligence Gathering and Management   [demo]
  Peng Gao*, Xiaoyuan Liu* (* equal contribution), Edward Choi, Bhavna Soman, Chinmaya Mishra, Kate Farris, Dawn Song
  SIGMOD Demonstrations Track, June 2021
  • 2020 Microsoft Security AI Research Award (Acceptance rate: 3/55 = 5.5%)
• CHAMP: Characterizing Undesired App Behaviors from User Comments based on Market Policies   [source]
  Yangyu Hu, Haoyu Wang, Tiantong Ji, Xusheng Xiao, Xiapu Luo, Peng Gao, Yao Guo
  ICSE, May 2021
  
• Enabling Efficient Cyber Threat Hunting With Cyber Threat Intelligence   [demo] [website]
  Peng Gao, Fei Shao, Xiaoyuan Liu, Xusheng Xiao, Zheng Qin, Fengyuan Xu, Prateek Mittal, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Dawn Song
  ICDE, April 2021
  
• A System for Efficiently Hunting for Cyber Threats in Computer Systems Using Threat Intelligence
  Peng Gao, Fei Shao, Xiaoyuan Liu, Xusheng Xiao, Haoyuan Liu, Zheng Qin, Fengyuan Xu, Prateek Mittal, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Dawn Song
  ICDE Demonstrations Track, April 2021
• Querying Streaming System Monitoring Data for Enterprise System Anomaly Detection
  Peng Gao, Xusheng Xiao, Ding Li, Kangkook Jee, Haifeng Chen, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Prateek Mittal
  ICDE Demonstrations Track, April 2020
  
• DeepIntent: Deep Icon-Behavior Learning for Detecting Intention-Behavior Discrepancy in Mobile Apps   [source]
  Shengqu Xi, Shao Yang, Xusheng Xiao, Yuan Yao, Yayuan Xiong, Fengyuan Xu, Haoyu Wang, Peng Gao, Zhuotao Liu, Feng Xu, Jian Lu
  ACM CCS, November 2019
  
• HyperService: Interoperability and Programmability Across Heterogeneous Blockchains   [technical report] [source] [website]
  Zhuotao Liu, Yangxi Xiang, Jian Shi, Peng Gao, Haoyu Wang, Xusheng Xiao, Bihan Wen, Yih-Chun Hu
  ACM CCS, November 2019
  
• Data Capsule: A New Paradigm for Automatic Compliance with Data Privacy Regulations
  Lun Wang, Joseph P. Near, Neel Somani, Peng Gao, Andrew Low, David Dao, Dawn Song
  POLY, August 2019
  
• A Query System for Efficiently Investigating Complex Attack Behaviors for Enterprise Security
  Peng Gao, Xusheng Xiao, Zhichun Li, Kangkook Jee, Fengyuan Xu, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Prateek Mittal
  VLDB Demonstrations Track, August 2019
  
• IconIntent: Automatic Identification of Sensitive UI Widgets based on Icon Classification for Android Apps
  Xusheng Xiao, Xiaoyin Wang, Zhihao Cao, Hanlin Wang, Peng Gao
  ICSE, May 2019
  
• SAQL: A Stream-based Query System for Real-Time Abnormal System Behavior Detection   [demo] [website]
  Peng Gao, Xusheng Xiao, Ding Li, Zhichun Li, Kangkook Jee, Zenyu Wu, Chung Hwan Kim, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Prateek Mittal
  USENIX Security, August 2018
  • Top-10 Finalist in CSAW Best Applied Research Paper Competition, 2018 (Acceptance Rate: 10/74 = 13.5%)
  • Deployed in NEC Laboratories America
  • U.S. patent granted
• AIQL: Enabling Efficient Attack Investigation from System Monitoring Data   [demo] [website]
  Peng Gao, Xusheng Xiao, Zhichun Li, Kangkook Jee, Fengyuan Xu, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Prateek Mittal
  USENIX ATC, July 2018
  • Integrated in the NEC Corporation's Automated Security Intelligence solution as its major query system, which won the 1st place in the 2016 CEATEC Town Life and Society Innovation Award and was commercialized
  • Deployed in NEC Laboratories America
  • U.S. patent granted
• SybilFuse: Combining Local Attributes with Global Structure to Perform Robust Sybil Detection   [dataset]
  Peng Gao, Binghui Wang, Neil Zhenqiang Gong, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Kurt Thomas, Prateek Mittal
  IEEE CNS, May 2018
  • Shipped to the DARPA’s RADICS program
• SybilFuse: Combining Local Attributes with Global Structure to Perform Robust Sybil Detection
  Peng Gao, Binghui Wang, Neil Zhenqiang Gong, Sanjeev R. Kulkarni, Kurt Thomas, Prateek Mittal
  MIS2, February 2018
  
• Exploiting Temporal Dynamics in Sybil Defenses
  Changchang Liu*, Peng Gao* (* equal contribution), Matthew Wright, Prateek Mittal
  ACM CCS, October 2015
  

Teaching

Instructor, Virginia Tech

• CS 5594: Blockchain Technologies, Spring 2022

Teaching Assistant, Princeton University

• COS432 Information Security, 02/2016 - 05/2016

Teaching Assistant, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

• VE401 Probabilistic Methods in Eng., 09/2012 - 12/2012
• VE230 Electromagnetics I, 05/2012 - 08/2012
• VV256 Applied Calculus IV, 09/2011 - 12/2011
• VV255 Applied Calculus III, 05/2011 - 08/2011
• VV156 Applied Calculus II, 09/2010 - 12/2010

Group

I have been fortunate to work with a group of fantastic students.

Ph.D. Students

• Xinyu Yang (Spring 2022)
• Osama Bajaber (Fall 2021 - Present, co-advised with Bo Ji)

Master's Students

• Sibo Ma (Spring 2021 - Present, co-advised with Dawn Song), Undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley → Incoming master's student at University of California, Berkeley
• Edward Choi (Fall 2019 - Present, co-advised with Dawn Song), Undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley → Master's student at University of California, Berkeley, [SIGMOD 2021 Demo, ICDE 2022 Demo]

Undergraduate Students / Interns

• Zhengjie Ji (Summer 2021 - Present), Undergraduate at Shanghai Jiao Tong University → Master's student at KTH, [ICDE 2022 Demo]
• Ziyu Wang (Summer 2021 - Fall 2021), Undergraduate at Huazhong University of Science and Technology
• Shengjing Wang (Summer 2021 - Fall 2021), Undergraduate at Columbia University
• Zilin Zhang (Summer 2021 - Fall 2021), Undergraduate at Shanghai Jiao Tong University & University of Michigan
• Haoyuan Liu (Fall 2020 - Fall 2021), Undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley → software engineer at Meta (Facebook), [ICDE 2021 Demo]

Work

• Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA, 08/2021 - Present
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA, 06/2019 - 04/2021
• Visiting Student Researcher, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA, 01/2019 - 05/2019
• Research Intern, Systems Research Group, Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), Beijing, China, 06/2018 - 09/2018
• Software Engineering Intern, Site Integrity Team, Facebook, Menlo Park, CA, USA, 06/2017 - 09/2017
• Research Intern, Computer Security Department, NEC Laboratories America, Princeton, NJ, USA, 10/2016 - 12/2016
• Research Intern, Computer Security Department, NEC Laboratories America, Princeton, NJ, USA, 11/2015 - 01/2016
• Research Intern, Security and Privacy Group, Microsoft Research (MSR), Redmond, WA, USA, 06/2015 - 09/2015

Patents

• "System and Method for Detecting Security Risks in a Computer System", Ding Li, Xusheng Xiao, Zhichun Li, Guofei Jiang, and Peng Gao, US10909242B2, granted 02/2021
• "Risky Behavior Query Construction and Execution", Xusheng Xiao, Zhichun Li, Fengyuan Xu, Peng Gao, and Guofei Jiang, US10860582B2, granted 12/2020

Professional Services

Technical Program Committee

• International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)
• IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS 2019)
• International ACM Conference on Web Science (WebSci 2020, 2021)
• IEEE International Conference on Communications: Next-Generation Networking and Internet Symposium (ICC - NGNI 2021, 2022)
• Conference on Blockchain Research and Applications for Innovative Networks and Services (BRAINS 2020, 2021)
• International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo 2019)
• Outlier Detection and Description Workshop (ODD 2021)
• Workshop on Computational Methods in Online Misbehavior (CyberSafety 2019, 2020)
• Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS 2018)

Panelist

• National Science Foundation (NSF 2021)

Reviewer

• ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)

Journal Reviewer

• IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE 2021)
• IEEE JSAC Series on Machine Learning for Communications and Networks (JSAC - ML4ComNet 2021)
• IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC 2020)
• IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS 2017, 2020)
• ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS 2020)
• IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON 2018, 2020)
• IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC 2018)
• ACM Transactions on Data Science (TDS 2018)

Poster Jury

• IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P 2019)

External Reviewer

• Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PoPETs 2019, 2020, 2021)

Sponsors