Ali Zohaib

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, advised by Amir Houmansadr. My research lies at the intersection of network security, privacy, and Internet censorship. Specifically, I develop analytical methods and practical tools to counter large-scale threats to users’ online privacy and security.

Prior to starting my Ph.D., I received my bachelor’s from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan and spent two years working as a software engineer at a Seattle-based startup.

Highlights

• Sep 2026 — Our paper "CircumVolve: Automated Discovery of Censorship Evasion Strategies Using Large Language Models" was accepted at CCS 2026.
• Jul 2026 — Our paper received the Best Practical Paper award at FOCI 2026.
• May 2026 — Started an internship at Cloudflare Research.
• Mar 2026 — I gave a talk at the RSA Conference.
• Aug 2025 — Our paper Exposing and Circumventing SNI-based QUIC Censorship of the Great Firewall of China received a Best Paper Honorable Mention at USENIX Security 2025.
• May 2025 — Presented our work on QUIC Censorship at Stanford Security Lunch.
• May 2025 — Our paper A Wall Behind A Wall: Emerging Regional Censorship in China appeared at IEEE S&P (Oakland) 2025.

Publications

Projects/Tools

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