Ravindu De Silva
Lost in the serenity. Kankesanthurai,
Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
I am a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Barbara , where I am conducting research in SecLab, advised by Prof Giovanni Vigna and Prof Christopher Kruegel. My research primarily centers around Web Application Security.
Linkedin , Google Scholar
EDUCATION HISTORY
PhD in computer science
Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Status: Reading (2023 - )
Bachelor of Science Honours in Software Engineering [First Class]
Institution: University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka
College Honors: Gold Medal, Professor Soma Goonetillake Memorial Award
Thesis: CGraph-Graph Based Extensible Cyber Threat Intelligence System
Degree Awarded: 1st May of 2021
RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Graduate Researcher: UC Santa Barbara, CA, USA. (SecLab)
Supervisors: Dr. Giovanni Vigna and Dr. Christopher Kruegel
Research Domain: Web Application Security
Research Associate: UC Santa Barbara, CA, USA. (SecLab)
Supervisors: Dr. Giovanni Vigna and Dr. Christopher Kruegel
Work carried out: Developed deep reinforcement learning simulation to mimic user actions
against zk-snark-based smart contracts
Results: On progress
Year: 2022
Research Intern : Qatar Computing Research Institute[Remote].
Supervisors: Dr. Mohamed Nabeel (QCRI)
Work carried out: Research conducted to identify attackers created and compromised
domains using machine learning
Results: Compromised or Attacker-Owned: A Large Scale Classification and Study of Hosting Domains of Malicious URL, USENIX Security 21
Year: 2020
PUBLICATIONS
2023
A Large Scale Study and Classification of VirusTotal Reports on Phishing and Malware URLs
Euijin Choo, Mohamed Nabeel. Doowon Kim, Ravindu De Silva, Ting Yu,Issa Khalil.
ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems
(ACM MAC Volume7)
2021
Compromised or Attacker-Owned: A Large Scale Classification and Study of Hosting Domains of Malicious URLs
Ravindu De Silva, M Nabeel, C Elvitigala, I Khalil, T Yu, C Keppitiyagama
30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21)
Malicious and Low Credibility URLs on Twitter during the AstraZeneca covid-19 Vaccine Development
S Horawalavithana, ,Ravindu De Silva, N Weerasekara, NG Kin Wai, M Nabeel, B Abayaratna, C Elvitigala, P Wijesekera, A Iamnitchi
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory (CMOT22)
GRADUATE AWARDS & OTHER AWARDS
Graduate Awards
Professor Soma Goonetillake Memorial Award for the Best Final Year Software Engineering research project in B.Sc.(Hons) Software Engineering, Gold Medal.
Institution: University Of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Other Awards - International
Winner, Grand Challenge, North American Social Network Conference (NASN).
Institution : North American Social Network Conference (NASN).
OPEN SOURCE
Scan8: Distributed scanning system for detecting trojans, viruses, malware, and other malicious threats embedded in files.
Survey6: Passive IPv6 traffic listener.
RayZed: Distributed web vulnerability scanner.
Urlabuse: URL scanning system.
OTHERS
[Dec, 23] Google GSoC 2023 - mentor w/ SCoRe Lab.
[Dec, 22] Google GSoC 2022 - mentor w/ SCoRe Lab.
[Dec, 21] Google GSoC 2021 - mentor w/ SCoRe Lab.
[Aug, 20] Successfully completed GSoC 2020.
[Dec, 19] Google Code-in 2019 - mentor w/ SCoRe Lab.
[Dec, 18] Google Code-in 2018 - mentor w/ SCoRe Lab.
[Dec, 17] Google Code-in 2017 - mentor w/ SCoRe Lab.