Karim Elish

Dr. Karim Elish is an associate professor of computer science at Florida Polytechnic University. He obtained his Ph.D. and MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. Before joining Florida Poly in 2016, he was an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University-Fort Wayne. He received the prestigious Florida Poly ABLAZE Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018.

Elish’s research portfolio is centered at the intersection of cybersecurity and software engineering. His expertise encompasses a wide array of topics, including cybersecurity analytics, software security, mobile security, and applied machine learning and data mining. His work in these areas has garnered substantial recognition, with over 1,470+ citations on Google Scholar. He also has showcased his proficiency in acquiring funding, securing a total of around $716,000 in grants as both PI and Co-PI by 2023.

Elish is serving as a reviewer for many high impact ISI journals and conferences such as IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security, IEEE Transactions on Mobile computing (TMC), IEEE Systems Journal, and others. He holds senior membership in both IEEE and ACM.

Awards and Honors

• ABLAZE Excellence in Teaching Award, Florida Polytechnic University, 2018
• Top 5 Finalist, Paul E. Torgersen Research Excellence Award, Virginia Tech, 2014
• Top 10 most cited papers, Elsevier Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), 2014
• Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars, 2014

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Virginia Tech, 2015
• M.S. in Computer Science, Virginia Tech, 2011
• M.S. in Computer Science, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, 2008
• B.S. in Computer Science, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, 2006

Expertise

• Cybersecurity Analytics
• Mobile Security And Privacy
• Software Security and Quality
• Software Engineering
• Applied AI and Data Mining

Professional Activities

• Senior Member, IEEE and ACM, 2020 – current
• Journal reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), 2018 – current
• Journal reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), 2016 – current
• Journal reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security (TIFS), 2016 – current
• Panelist, National Science Foundation, Proposal Evaluation Panel for Cybersecurity Education Program 2017

Select Publications

• Elish, K., Omar, M., and Almohri, H. (2022). “Lightweight, Effective Detection and Characterization of Mobile Malware Families,” IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), vol. 71, no. 11, pp. 2982-2995.
• Almohri, H., Almutawa, M., Alawadh, M., and Elish, K. (2020). “A Client Bootstrapping Protocol for DoS Attack Mitigation on Entry Point Services in the Cloud,” Security and Communication Networks, Wiley and Hindawi.
• Elish, K., Cai, H., Barton, D., Yao, D., and Ryder, B. (2020). “Identifying Mobile Inter-App Communication Risks,” IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), vol. 19, no. 1.
• Blanc, W., Hashem, L., Elish, K., and Almohri, H. (2019). “Identifying Android Malware Families Using Android-Oriented Metrics.” In proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data), Cyber Intelligence and Defense Track, Los Angeles, CA.
• Elish, K., Shu, X., Yao, D., Ryder, B., and Jiang, X. (2015). “Profiling User-Trigger Dependence for Android Malware Detection,” Computers & Security, Elsevier, vol. 49, 255-273.