Simone Aonzo, PhD

~ Malware Hunter
~ Assistant Professor
~ Coffee fueled paper writer

Hello and welcome!

My name is Simone Aonzo, but online I am also known as packm(a|4)d.

I am an assistant professor at the Eurecom graduate school and research center, located in the Sophia Antipolis technology park on the French Riviera.

I work in the Software and System Security (S3) Group, and my research areas are

  • Mobile (Android) system security
  • Malware analysis (Android and Windows)
  • Human studies in security processes
  • Phishing

My publications are listed here.

I have contributed to the academic community by serving on the program committees of conferences such as USENIX Security and RAID, and as a reviewer for ACM TOPS.

As for teaching, I have two courses. A basic one, “Introduction to Cybersecurity”, and an advanced one, “Reverse Engineering Malware”. In the spirit of open source, all my course material is publicly available here.

Beyond academia, I co-founded ThreatNemesis, a cybersecurity startup specializing in Android sandboxing technology - based on years of extensive research.

Personal life

I’m Italian, and I was born in 1988 in Savona.

I studied, lived, and worked for many years in Genova. I have mixed feelings about this city, but it is undoubtedly one of the most charming cities I’ve ever seen [video]. At the moment, I live in Antibes, France. So I always woke up with the smell of the sea, I just can’t get rid of it!

I’m a father of twins, Francesco and Alessandro, born in 2010. I have discovered a new world through their eyes. In my opinion, having children is the most difficult, but also, without a doubt, the most rewarding experience.

I was a pro kickboxing K-1 fighter until 2015. I won two belts: amateur European Champion and professional Italian Champion [video]. I am still training, I have no intention to stop, but only to eat Italian food without getting fat! 🙂

I have a lot of hobbies, depending on the season (and sometimes I sleep):