Federico Cifuentes-Urtubey

Mobius Research Group

Masking Wi-Fi Discovery and Communication

This project seeks to reduce the likelihood of privacy intrusion in wireless device traffic through Wi-Fi packets by implementing a MAC randomization scheme limiting identifying information in broadcasted probe request packets.

Passive Device Identification with Timing Analysis

Best Poster Runner-up!

This poster is for preliminary results on identifying unique devices using an attack exploiting temporal patterns on packet bursts during Wi-Fi network discovery. The attack achieves a 94.1% success rate in detecting unique mobile devices in a small network.

S3 '23 Paper Poster

Defending Wi-Fi Network Discovery from Time Correlation Tracking

To harden Wi-Fi devices against broadcast timing-based tracking, I designed MAC address randomization with randomized transmission times as a defense. It involves programming a packet management system with the Linux Netlink API in C.

MobiSys '22 Paper Poster

Personal Projects

Measuring TLS 1.3 in Email Services

Email traffic is still the most prevalent form of electronic communication and often requires security compliance by using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. This project measures how the updated standard, TLS 1.3, is used across thousands of email domains to understand how newly published security features propagate as the need for security changes.

DR. QUIC

Decoy Routing with QUIC (DR. QUIC) is a project that is implementing an upstream decoy routing scheme by replacing TCP with QUIC transmissions to combat anti-censorship systems.

Poster

QUIC Performance in Enterprise Networking

A small scale study on performance of the QUIC protocol on Illinois' campus using Wireshark, Hyper (Python), and Requests (Python) to track metrics through different HTTP versions.

Code

Ebiquity Research Group, UMBC

Linking Android Application Permissions to User Data and System Resources

Advisor: Anupam Joshi

The goal of this project was to map Android application permissions in third party apps to Android OS system calls and utilization of user data by programming a static analysis tool with Java.

Android Pay’s Solution to Traditional Payment Systems

Advisor: Ed Zieglar

This project seeked to uncover the protocols used in the Android Pay (now Google Pay) app to understand the degree of security in the increasingly used mobile payment system. We concluded that Android Pay resolves physical security vulnerabilities with the use of tokenization.

PDF LSAMP @ UMBC Article

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Cloud Networking - CS 435
  Fall 2021

Communication Networks - CS 438
  Spring 2019 | Spring 2020 | Spring 2022

Distributed Systems - CS 425/ECE 428
  Fall 2018 | Fall 2019 | Spring 2021

Grainger College of Engineering Faculty Training Program
  Summer 2020

Wireless Networks - CS 439
  Fall 2020 | Fall 2022 | Fall 2023

Computer Science Directed Reading Program Mentor

Through DRP, I mentor 2 undergraduates in learning networking and security to expose them to advanced topics and research in each subject.

Undergraduate Research Project Mentor

I advised a student on a weekly basis for a research project on public Wi-Fi privacy.

SHPE Illinois Graduate Ambassador

My goal as part of the Chapter is to expose underrepresented undergraduate students in STEM to graduate school. I lead the Graduate Development Team, a group of 7, to organize and implement workshops for professional and academic development in relation to graduate study.

In Spring 2020, my Team launched Grad MentorSHPE, a peer mentorship program to prepare Hispanic and Latino students for advanced degree programs in engineering. We collaborate with The Graduate College and the Office of Undergraduate Research in addition to various engineering departments on campus to provide an inclusive and tailored experience for grad school preparation.

In Spring 2021, my Team earned a grant from the Insitute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) at Illinois to further develop our mentorship program! The grant enables new programming on cultural competency and translating academic skills to work environments. Read the grant announcement below!

GIANT Grant Announcement CS@Illinois Feature

In Spring 2022, the Graduate Development Team earned the Outstanding Graduate Development Award from the Region 6 Leadership Team for our efforts in providing leadership and professional development tailored for graduate students.

Article on Award

Chapter Awards during tenure
Outstanding Graduate Development Award (Mar. 2022)
Region 6 Blue Chip Award (Mar. 2022)
2020-21 National Large Student Chapter of the Year (Nov. 2021)
Region 6 Blue Chip Award (Oct. 2021)
Region 6 Blue Chip Award (Apr. 2021)
2019-20 National Large Student Chapter of the Year (Nov. 2020)
Region 6 Blue Chip Award (Nov. 2020)
Region 6 Blue Chip Award (Apr. 2020)
Highest Membership Growth – Large Chapter Award (Apr. 2020)
National Outstanding Academic Development Award (Nov. 2019)
Illinois Engineering Council Society of the Month (Sep. 2019)
Regional Membership Booster Award (Apr. 2019)

Meyerhoff Scholars Program Summer Bridge Counselor

A valuable, unforgettable summer with 79 incoming freshmen to UMBC gave me the privilege of shaping their perspective of advancing minorities in STEM fields as Meyerhoff Scholars. I also developed and instructed an introductory Computer Science workshop series with Python programming. Excellence demands sacrifice.

Meyerhoff Scholars Program Peer Advisor

I advised 6 amazing students in Computer Science to provide guidance with time management and organization habits. I also gave them personalized coaching to establish personal, career, and research goals. They're changing the world with their passion!