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Despite continuous efforts to build and update network infrastructure, mobile devices in developing regions continue to be constrained by limited bandwidth. Unfortunately, this coincides with a period of unprecedented growth in the size of…
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have emerged as a way to collect digital art as well as an investment vehicle. Despite having been popularized only recently, NFT markets have witnessed several high-profile (and high-value) asset sales and a…
Security protocols enable secure communication over insecure channels. Privacy protocols enable private interactions over secure channels. Security protocols set up secure channels using cryptographic primitives. Privacy protocols set up…
[Background] Web communication is universal in cyberspace, and security risks in this domain are devastating. [Aims] We analyzed the prevalence of six security smells in mobile app servers, and we investigated the consequence of these…
Like most modern software, secure messaging apps rely on third-party components to implement important app functionality. Although this practice reduces engineering costs, it also introduces the risk of inadvertent privacy breaches due to…
This paper examines the dynamics of the cryptocurrency market and proposes a novel blockchain-based protocol for real estate transactions. Our analysis includes a detailed review of price trends, volatility, and correlations within the…
We conduct a large-scale measurement of developers' insecure practices leading to mini-app to super-app authentication bypass, among which hard-coding developer secrets for such authentication is a major contributor. We also analyze the…
Conspiracy theories, particularly those focused on anti-vaccine narratives and the promotion of off-label medications such as MMS and CDS, have proliferated on Telegram, including in Brazil, finding fertile ground among communities that…
Contemporary mobile applications (apps) are designed to track, use, and share users' data, often without their consent, which results in potential privacy and transparency issues. To investigate whether mobile apps have always been…
Millions of mobile apps have been available through various app markets. Although most app markets have enforced a number of automated or even manual mechanisms to vet each app before it is released to the market, thousands of low-quality…
FemTech or Female Technology, is an expanding field dedicated to providing affordable and accessible healthcare solutions for women, prominently through Female Health Applications that monitor health and reproductive data. With the leading…
The digital age has brought a world of opportunity to children. Connectivity can be a game-changer for some of the world's most marginalized children. However, while legislatures around the world have enacted regulations to protect…
Several solutions ensuring the dynamic detection of malicious activities on Android ecosystem have been proposed. These are represented by generic rules and models that identify any purported malicious behavior. However, the approaches…
The internet is a common place for businesses to collect and store as much client data as possible and computer storage capacity has increased exponentially due to this trend. Businesses utilize this data to enhance customer satisfaction,…
The data revolution in low- and middle-income countries is quickly transforming how companies approach emerging markets. As mobile phones and mobile money proliferate, they generate new streams of data that enable innovation in consumer…
The commoditization of Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) allows criminals to obtain financial benefits at a low risk and with little technical background. One such popular product in the underground economy is ransomware. In ransomware attacks,…
The advancement of AI technologies, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), has transformed computing while introducing new security and privacy risks. Prior research shows that cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging uncensored LLMs…
Telegram has become a major space for political discourse and alternative media. However, its lack of moderation allows misinformation, extremism, and toxicity to spread. While prior research focused on these particular phenomena or topics,…
Viewing social apps as sociotechnical systems makes clear that they are not mere pieces of technology but mediate human interaction and may unintentionally enable harmful behaviors like online harassment. As more users interact through…
DNS over TLS (DoT) and DNS over HTTPS (DoH) promise to improve privacy and security of DNS by encrypting DNS messages, especially when messages are padded to a uniform size. Firstly, to demonstrate the limitations of recommended padding…