Mario Raciti

PhD Researcher in Cybersecurity

tsumarios' blog

CySec and Research - A cool description might be something like:
"a place where I post about my research and share resources".

Featured Posts

You can find more articles in my Personal Blog.

(Gen)AI4CySec

Jul 13, 2024ai, cti, dfir

This blog post introduces you to the (Gen)AI4CySec project, which highlights the practical applications of Generative AI (GenAI) in cybersecurity.

A Primer on Cryptocurrency Investigation and Forensics

Sep 02, 2023dfir

An introductory exploration of Cryptocurrency Investigation and Forensics, with a demo on a real-world RaaS case.

Visual Cryptography Explained

Oct 21, 2022cryptography, dfir

An overview about Visual Cryptography and implementations of the main state-of-the-art techniques in the VCrytpure open source project.

~$ whoami

profile_pic
PhD Student in Cybersecurity at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca - University of Catania.
Security Researcher at NaS.Inf and DistriNet.
Host of the HoneyPod podcast.
Admin/Writer at Rev3rse Security.
Interests: CySec and Privacy Threat Modelling, (Anti-)Digital Forensic, Cyber Threat Intelligence.

Short Bio

I am a PhD Student of the first National PhD in Cybersecurity at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, assigned at the University of Catania, where I joined the Networks and Security Informatics (NaS.Inf) research lab. Currently, I am also a visiting researcher at KU Leuven where I joined the DistriNet research unit.
I hold a Master's degree in Computer Science (Network and Security Systems) from the University of Catania. My Master's thesis focused on cybersecurity risks in modern vehicles.
Before starting my doctorate programme, I worked as a Research Fellow at the Italian Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) for 2 years.
My research interests cover the CySec and Privacy Threat Modelling, (Anti-)Digital Forensics, and Cyber Threat Intelligence fields.

Experience

  • Sep 2024–ongoing

    Research - KU Leuven - DistriNet

    Visiting Researcher. Cybersecurity and Privacy Threat Modelling - Threat Modelling Automation with Generative AI and LLMs - Evaluation of Threat Modelling Tools.

  • Dec 2022–ongoing

    Research - IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca - NaS.Inf

    PhD Researcher. Cybersecurity and Privacy Threat Modelling - (Anti-)Digital Forensics - Cyber Threat Intelligence - Cryptocurrency Investigation and Cybercrime - IoT Privacy and Security - Research Method - Project Management - Research Grant Application.

  • Oct 2020–Nov 2022

    Fellowship - INAF-OACT

    Scrum (AGILE) software developer. In-kind collaboration within ASTRON for the LOFARTMSS projects.
    System Administrator. System management of the PLEIADI cluster.

  • Mar 2020–May 2020

    Internship - INAF-OACT

    Trainee. REST-ful APIs and Web service implementation for the EOSC cloud as part of H2020 NEANIAS.

  • Feb 2019–ongoing

    Community Collaboration - Rev3rse Security

    Blog Writer - Admin. Technical ICT Security blogging on research, proof-of-concepts and tutorials.

Research Projects

Academic Service

  • Peer Review

    SAC-SRC 2025, ACSW 2024, ESORICS 2024, ESORICS 2023.

  • Technical Program Commettee

    IEEE EuroS&P Workshop on Automotive Cybersecurity (ACSW) 2024.

International Events

  • Jun 2024-Jun 2024

    Summer School - SECAI

    PhD Student. Summer School on Security and Privacy in the Age of AI 2024 - Security and privacy aspects of AI, security and privacy solutions with advanced AI, state-of-the-art ML to higher security and privacy levels, establishing stronger ties between academia and industry.

  • Jun 2024-Jun 2024

    Summer School - CySeP

    PhD Student. Cybersecurity and Privacy (CySeP) Summer School 2024 - Cybersecurity and Privacy challenges, fundamentals, cutting-edge solutions, and latest research results.

  • Jul 2023-Jul 2023

    Summer School - IFOSS

    PhD Student. International FOrensics Summer School (IFOSS) 2023 Edition - Digitalisation and forensic data science: from evidence acquisition to interpretation.

Education

  • 2022–ongoing

    PhD Degree - IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, assigned at DMI.UNICT, Italy.

    PhD-CySec - National PhD in Cybersecurity - Software, System, and Infrastructure Security, EQF 8

  • 2018–2020

    Master's Degree - DMI.UNICT, Italy.

    LM-18 - 2nd level degree in Computer Science - Network and Security Systems, EQF 7

  • 2015–2018

    Bachelor's Degree - DMI.UNICT, Italy.

    L-31 - 1st level degree in Computer Science, EQF 6

Selected Publications

The full list is available on my ResearchGate profile.

    Talks and Presentations

    (Click on the cover image to download slides)


    Works

    You can find full code and related docs on my Github profile.

    アマヤラ Lab

    アマヤラ Lab

    アマヤラ (Android Malware Analysis YARA) Lab is a project that provides a ready-to-use Jupyter Lab environment to help out with Android malware analysis using YARA rules. It automatically analyses files with your YARA rules and stores the results in a JSON file. YARA rules are checked against both the APK file itself and its content (recursively). アマヤラ Lab also gathers some information about the file(s) that you want to analyse from the Virus Total and Malware Bazaar APIs, using your own API keys. Eventually, The results include a link to Pithus which is valid only if the file was already uploaded.

    AURA

    AURA

    AURA (AUtomotive Risk Assessment) is the name of my Master's thesis. In this work we propose a Risk Assessment exercise applied to an automotive scenario, according to the MAGERIT methodology and with the support of the PILAR commercial tool, in order to seek whether both of them may prove to be useful in the automotive field, with specific attention paid to potential threats against personal data en route from/to connected vehicles. Moreover, we also provide a regression analysis study of the algorithm implemented in Pilar for the purposes of reverse engineering, to better understand the values calculated by the tool in the demo.

    VCrypture

    VCrypture

    VCrypture is an online service that allows you to encrypt your secret images safely using visual cryptographic algorithms. VCrypture is composed of two mainly parts: VCrypture-API and VCrypture-Web. The latter is a web server which provides the front-end as well as forwarding users' requests to the API core, whilst the former aims to perform visual cryptographic operations on images. The user can choose between four visual cryptographic algorithms: Naor-Shamir, Taghaddos-Latif, Dhiman-Kasana EVCT(N, N) and Dhiman-Kasana EVCT(K, N).

    DSR Bad

    DSR Bad

    The Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol is an example of reactive routing protocol for MANET networks. To work properly, DSR requires nodes to collaborate without maliciously inhibiting routing operations. In this scientific paper we present DSR Bad, a modification of the DSR module present in the ns-3 simulator, through which we aim to study and analyze two examples of non-cooperative scenarios that allow us to observe the impact suffered by the protocol and its reaction to situations not normally foreseen.

    QueKey

    QueKey

    QueKey is the name of my Bachelor's thesis. The project is a cloud system for IoT Smart Lock devices placed in hotels and B&Bs. Its aim is, on the one hand, to make easy the handling of rooms and builds for the hotel managers and, on the other side, to give to their guests an easy way to lock and unlock rooms. QueKey consts of a main cloud service and of two physical devices: a RaspberryPi 3 (also other little boards are compatible with the system) and a NodeMCU with ESP8266 WiFi module.

    FIAR

    FIAR

    FIAR (Four-In-A-Row) is an online multiplayer game, with a vaporwave futuristic design inspired. Developed using NodeJS (Express & Socket.IO with rooms handling) and p5.js library (Processing based). FIAR can be played on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones, thanks to its responsive design. Indeed the canvas containing the game is created in order to fit most of the display sizes.

    Get in touch!

    Please feel free to contact me for any questions.
    Don't forget to follow me on socials! I actively post cybersecurity news and resources.