Kaitai Liang
 PhD, associate professor (in cybersecurity),


kaitai.liang@utu.fi




ORCID identifierhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0262-7678

DBLP

Personal Website

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Areas of expertise
Data Protection; Security for Machine/Federated Learning; Applied Cryptography; Application-Driven Blockchain Development;

Biography

I am an associate professor in cybersecurity at UTU, Finland. I earned my PhD in Computer Science from CityU Hong Kong. I held several academic positions, including as an information security research intern at A*STAR, a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University, and an academic visitor at universities, e.g., UCL and Northwest University. I was an assistant professor in secure systems at the University of Surrey. 

Since 2020, I've gained significant recognition within the cybersecurity and ICT communities. I've secured European funding for several high-impact projects related to cybersecurity and AI, serving as PI and accumulating over 2.5 million euros in funding. My research has led to real-world impact through collaborations, e.g., IBM, Fujitsu, NEC, BIBA, ATOS, with use cases, e.g., smart satellite (ASSURED, Greece), smart transportation (IRIS, Spain), and cross-border biometric data exchange (TENSOR, Portugal). 

My research, which applies information security tools to tackle cybersecurity challenges, has earned over 6k+ citations (top 2% citation scientist). My works have been featured in top-tier conferences, e.g., USENIX Security, NDSS, CVPR, SIGMETRICS, ESORICS, Asiacrypt, and many others, as well as in leading international journals, e.g., IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. I've also delivered information security keynotes to international conferences and received awards, e.g., distinguished reviewer, best research paper.  

A sought-after expert, I've been invited to serve on PC member, as General Chair, and as a Steering Committee member for renowned security and privacy conferences, e.g.,  USENIX Security, ACM CCS, IEEE Euro S&P, ESORICS, IEEE CSF, PoPETs, as well as session chairs, keynotes for information security topics. I also serve as an Associate Editor for prominent journals, e.g., The Computer Journal, IEEE Open Journal of the Communication Society, IEEE Systems Journal, Journal of Information Security and Applications, IEEE Transactions on artificial intelligence. 

I've contributed to ISO standards, as a member of the BSI (when he was in UK) and as part of the NEN committee 381027 "Cybersecurity & Privacy" in the Netherlands. I've also been invited to serve on research funding review committees and panels for NWO (Dutch research council) and other international funding bodies. As one of the founding members, I contributed to the development and settlement of APNet (a national network supporting assistant professors across the Netherlands).

I am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy, UK, and hold UTQ certificate, the Netherlands. Since 2016, I've involved in designing, teaching, and evaluating MSc, Bachelor's courses, as well as supervising MSc, PhD theses.  



Research

I would like to make my team focus on the R&D on: (1) data protection mechanisms, in particular practical data protection and sharing for encrypted outsourced data solutions, searchable encryption, updatable encryption, lattice-based encryption/signature (post-quantum cryptography); (2) security for machine/federated learning: attacks and countermeasures; and (3) application-driven blockchain (e.g., smart contract, oracles) development. 



Teaching

Cybersecurity engineering (for international bachelor)




Last updated on 2025-26-09 at 12:01