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Mohammad Shamim Ahsan

PhD Student, Cybersecurity Researcher

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"There is no one who goes out of his house to seek knowledge, but the angels lower their wings in approval of his action."

- The Prophet ﷺ

Welcome to My Webpage!

I'm a PhD student in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Pennsylvania State University, currently working in the Penn State Cyber Security Lab under Professor Peng Liu, Raymond G. Tronzo, M.D., Professor of Cybersecurity. Before this, I obtained my bachelor's degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2023. After graduation, I served as a full-time Lecturer at United International University (UIU), Bangladesh.

Research Interest:

My research focuses on advancing cybersecurity and privacy by securing cyber-physical systems and LLM-generated code, with an emphasis on detecting, reasoning about, and mitigating malicious behavior in complex systems.

Cyber-Physical System Security --- Developed methods to distinguish faults and cyberattacks in DER systems using taint-styled dependency graphs with node pruning and pattern matching. Currently exploring the potential integration of LLMs to enhance Bayesian Network (BN)-based reasoning, improve scalability, and automate knowledge extraction. (arXiv, PESGM'26, ...)
LLM for Code --- Investigating vulnerabilities in the LLM code generation process and how these models understand and reason about code, focusing on detection and mitigation strategies to ensure trustworthy and secure code generation. (...)
(Past Projects) IoT Network Security --- Explored security and privacy in Industrial and Smart Home IoT networks, including detecting smart home device activities from encrypted traffic, uncovering false-positive rate manipulation attacks in industrial IoT systems, and analyzing ML-based NIDSs on ambiguous IoT traffic. (TDSC, SWEVO, IoT, arXiv, ...)

Appointments

Graduate Research Assistant [2024-2026]

Department of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Lecturer [2023-2024]

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, United International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Teaching

Computer Security (CSE 4531)
Cloud Computing (CSE 4587)
Discrete Mathematics (CSE 2213)
Structured Programming Language Lab (CSE 1112)
Data Structure and Algorithms I Lab (CSE 2216)

Mentoring

Supervised a group of undergrad students and published two international conference papers (IEEE TENSYMP’24 and ICCA’24)

Undergraduate Research Assistant [2022-2023]

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Publication By Year

Google Scholar

ORCID

2026

C04. (accepted in IEEE PESGM 2026) Ahsan, M. S., Minghui Zhu, and Peng Liu. Bayesian Network-based Reasoning for Assisting the Differentiation between Cyberattacks and Undetected Faults in DER Systems. (PDF)

J06. Ahsan, M. S., & Liu, P. (2026). Uncovering and Understanding FPR Manipulation Attack in Industrial IoT Networks. arXiv preprint https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.14505

J05. Ahsan, M. S., Wang, H., Motakatla, V. R., Zhu, M., & Liu, P. (2026). Differentiation Between Faults and Cyberattacks through Combined Analysis of Cyberspace Logs and Physical Measurements. arXiv preprint https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.03289

2025

J04. Rahman, M., Ahsan, M.S., Chen, CW. et al. A census-based genetic algorithm for target set selection problem in social networks. Neural Comput & Applic (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-025-11480-3 (PDF)

J03. Ahsan, M. S., Islam, S., & Shatabda, S. (2025). A systematic review of metaheuristics-based and machine learning-driven intrusion detection systems in IoT. Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, 96, 101984. (PDF)

J02. Ahsan, M. S., & Pathan, A. S. K. (2025). A Comprehensive Survey on the Requirements, Applications, and Future Challenges for Access Control Models in IoT: The State of the Art. IoT, 6(1), 9. (PDF)

2024

C03. Ahsan, M. S., Ahmed, A. R., & Saidur Rahman, M. (2024, December). Randomized Algorithm for Online k-Server Problem on a Line. In International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Competitive Strategies (pp. 371-381). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. (PDF)

C02. Ahmed, S. N., Sajib, M. S. I., Ahmed, N., Ali, U. S., Fariha, L. T. J., Afroz, A., ... & Ahsan, M. S. (2024, October). AI and RBAC Enhanced Security System for Hospitals in Bangladesh. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computing Advancements (pp. 169-176). (PDF)

C01. Uddin, M. A., Sonali, S. H., Rahman, M. S., & Ahsan, M. S. (2024, September). Deep Learning for Agile Malware Detection. In 2024 IEEE Region 10 Symposium (TENSYMP) (pp. 1-6). IEEE. (PDF)

J01. Ahsan, M. S., Islam, M. S., Hossain, M. S., & Das, A. (2024). “Detecting Smart Home Device Activities Using Packet-Level Signatures from Encrypted Traffic.” IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC). (PDF)

Professional Activities

External Reviewer (Conference)

USENIX ATC'25
IEEE/IFIP DSN'25, DSN'26
ESORICS'26

Reviewer (Journals)

Springer:
- Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering
- Neural Computing and Applications (NCAA)
- Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications (P2PNA)
- Springer Nature Computer Science (SNCS)
- Cluster Computing
IOS Press:
- Journal of Computer Security
Taylor & Francis:
- International Journal of Computers and Applications
- Journal of Cyber Security Technology
World Scientific:
- International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science (ĲFCS)
Inderscience:
- International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering (IJCSE)

Personal Interests

Outside of research, I enjoy playing Chess and am currently in the learning phase, exploring strategies and improving my game.

I also play Cricket and have previously competed as a top-order batsman in school and collegiate tournaments.

PersonalQuote 1: "If any knowledge makes me arrogant, then it is worthless."

PersonalQuote 2: "Don't compare yourself with others; rather, compete with yourself. There will always be many people who are better than you."

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