Carnegie Mellon University

Vyas Sekar

Vyas Sekar

Tan Family Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • 2122 Collaborative Innovation Center
Address 5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Bio

Sekar received his Ph.D. from the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University in 2010. He earned his bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, where he was awarded the President of India Gold Medal. His work has been recognized with best paper awards at ACM SIGCOMM, ACM CoNext, and ACM Multimedia.

Education

Ph.D., 2010
Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University

Research

Keywords

  • Networking
  • Security and systems
  • Design and management of network appliances or "middleboxes"
  • Content/video delivery systems
  • Network monitoring and measurement
  • Computer security
  • Cybersecurity
  • Distributed systems
  • Information networking
  • Network security

Related news

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

CyLab Faculty, Students to Present at NDSS Symposium 2024

Carnegie Mellon faculty and students will present on a wide range of topics at the 31st Annual Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium.
Tuesday, February 06, 2024

CMU Partners to Reimagine Energy in the Region

Faculty from Carnegie Mellon University will collaborate with West Virginia University and University of Pittsburgh on a National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines program.
Wednesday, July 06, 2022

Sekar earns ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Paper Award

Professor Vyas Sekar and fellow researchers explore the impact of video quality on user engagement.
Wednesday, July 06, 2022

Carnegie Mellon launches initiative to transform nanosatellite capabilities

Researchers at CMU’s College of Engineering are working to develop computationally capable constellations of nanosatellites, equipped with machine learning techniques that extract valuable insights from the data while still in orbit.
Friday, July 01, 2022

Protect Your Security and Privacy

As many of us leave for summer vacation, protect your security and privacy with these tips from CyLab faculty.
Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Sekar earns IIT Madras Young Alumni Achiever Award

Electrical and Computer Engineering Tan Family Professor Vyas Sekar has received the Institute of Technology Madras' inaugural Young Alumni Achiever Award.
Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Faculty Named Intel’s 2021 Outstanding Researchers

CyLab faculty Justine Sherry, Vyas Sekar, and James Hoe have been selected among the winners of Intel’s 2021 Outstanding Researcher Award for their collaborative work on “Pigasus: FPGA-Accelerated Intrusion Detection and Prevention System” with Intel. Their work is to the fastest open-source intrusion detection system to date.
Wednesday, October 28, 2020

New Tool Simplifies Data Sharing, Preserves Privacy

According to a new study authored by researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab and IBM, a new tool can help circumvent privacy issues in data sharing. The study is being presented at the 2020 ACM Internet Measurement Conference, where it has been named a finalist in the conference’s Best Paper Award.
Monday, November 25, 2019

Preventing cyberattacks on vehicles

CyLab researchers create a tool to help prevent cyberattacks on vehicles that can identify all of the computers on the vehicle’s network, what messages each computer is sending, where those messages are going, and where they could go if an attacker took control over one.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Sekar warns about "juice jacking"

Sekar told The New York Times that “there is a risk” in charging your devices at public charging stations.
Monday, October 28, 2019

Protecting 3D printers from attackers

CyLab’s researchers have developed a tool to identify security risks of networked 3D printers.
Monday, June 10, 2019

CMU aims to develop privacy and security systems for Internet of Things

CyLab has recently announced its funded projects for the Secure and Private Internet of Things (IoT) Initiative.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019

First round of Secure and Private IoT Initiative funded projects announced

CyLab’s Secure and Private IoT Initiative (IoT@CyLab) has broken ground as the first round of funded proposals have been announced. Twelve selected projects will be funded for one year, and results will be presented at the IoT@CyLab annual summit next year.
Monday, April 08, 2019

Sekar on automated visitor security systems

ECE/CyLab’s Vyas Sekar was interviewed by NBC News about the safety and privacy of automated visitor security systems, which are replacing receptionists and security guards in businesses, schools, hotels, and hospitals.
Monday, January 07, 2019

As advertised? Exposing lies about VPN locations

CyLab researchers figured out a way to approximate actual locations of VPN servers based on the amount of time it took for a server in the unknown location to send a packet of data to a server in a known location—generally referred to as “ping time.”
Monday, October 08, 2018

Sekar on ransomware attacks and cybersecurity

Vyas Sekar was interviewed about the March 2017 ransomware attack on the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus.
Thursday, September 20, 2018

Secure and Private IoT Initiative

Carnegie Mellon's CyLab launches initiative on IoT security with Amazon Web Services, Infineon Technologies, and Nokia Bell Labs
Monday, August 27, 2018

Vyas Sekar discusses skills gap in cybersecurity

CNBC interviewed Vyas Sekar on the myths about cybersecurity employment.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Sekar and team discover internet vulnerabilities

The Register quoted a study by Vyas Sekar that uncovered how hackers exploit third-party internet services to hamper or stall website traffic.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Sekar quoted on Pyeongchang cyberattack

“It's pretty easy for attackers to hide their origins or use VPNs etc., so the IOC is probably doing the right thing of not blaming until they are sure,” Vyas Sekar told SC Magazine. “Forensics/attribution is really hard work especially given sophisticated attackers.”
Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Sekar honored with Angel Jordan Early Career Professorship

Vyas Sekar was awarded the Angel Jordan Early Career Professorship for his contributions in the academic and research sectors of Carnegie Mellon’s engineering department.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Strengthening network security

Despite the U.S. government’s $7.3 billion investment towards IT infrastructure last year, the state of operational network security remains abysmal. While many devices can be entry points to network breaches, printers and other IoT devices have recently been receiving a lot of bad press.
Thursday, December 08, 2016

Sekar talks identity theft in WalletHub

In the article, Sekar gives advice on how individuals can protect themselves from identity theft and fraud.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016

CyLab researchers win NSA’s 2016 Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper Competition

Vyas Sekar and student won the NSA's Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper Competition with their paper, “Nomad: Mitigating Arbitrary Cloud Side Channels via Provider-Assisted Migration.”
Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Sekar's work in reliable network security earns him a Facebook Research Award

Vyas Sekar has been selected to receive a Facebook Faculty Award for his research in networking, security, and systems.
Thursday, October 20, 2016

Vyas Sekar is this year’s SIGCOMM “Rising Star”

SIGCOMM’s 2016 “Rising Star” Award, which recognizes a young researcher who has made outstanding research contributions to the field of communication networks during this early part of his or her career.
Monday, July 25, 2016

Securing the Internet of Things

Over six billion connected devices in the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) will be in use by the end of 2016, according to a recent Gartner forecast. While the explosion of IoT has the power to transform society, many are concerned as security experts have exposed vulnerabilities in everything from Internet-connected Barbie dolls to SUVs.
Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Sekar wins NSF CAREER Award to improve network security

Network administrators’ jobs are getting tougher in today’s world, protecting their organizations’ valuable information from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks and ensuring that security and access control policies are implemented correctly.