Kemal Bıçakcı

Associate Professor

Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
TOBB University of Economics and Technology
Sogutozu Cad. No:43, Ankara, TR-06560, Turkey

Email: bicakci(at)etu.edu.tr (the best way to reach me is by e-mail)

Phone: +90-312-292-4262

Fax: +90-312-292-4180

Office: Room-Z69

Biographical Sketch:

Dr. Kemal Bicakci is an associate professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, TOBB (The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey) University of Economics and Technology. He has obtained his PhD degree from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in 2003. Between 2004 and 2006, he was a postdoc researcher in Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam working with Prof. Tanenbaum in EU FP6 project named SecurE-Justice. His previous research experience includes several NSF funded security projects in which he participated as a research assistant during his MS studies in University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.

His research interests include information security, applied cryptography, wireless and sensor networks and medical informatics. He has co-authored more than 30 international journal and conference papers. He has supervised MS Thesis of Yusuf Uzunay, 2005 – 2006 Academic Year Middle East Technical University Best Thesis Award Winner. He is currently responsible for coordinating a research project on computer security funded by Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Institute (TUBITAK).

2009 Publications:

Kemal Bicakci, Hakan Gültekin, Bulent Tavli, The Impact of One-Time Energy Costs on Network Lifetime in Wireless Sensor Networks, IEEE Communication Letters, (accepted), 2009.

Kemal Bicakci, Pushing the Limits of One-Time Signatures, 2nd International Conference on Security of Information and Networks (SIN 2009) 6-10 October 2009, ACM, Gazimagusa, North Cyprus.

Kemal Bicakci, Nart Bedin Atalay, Mustafa Yüceel, Hakan Gürbaşlar, Burak Erdeniz, “Towards Usable Solutions to Graphical Password Hotspot Problem”, In Proc. 4th IEEE International Workshop on Security, Trust, and Privacy for Software Applications (STPSA 2009) in conjunction with COMPSAC 2009, July 20-24 2009, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Kemal Bicakci, Mustafa Yuceel, Burak Erdeniz, Hakan Gurbaslar, Nart Bedin Atalay, “Graphical Passwords as Browser Extension: Implementation and Usability Study, In Proc. of the 5th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, SOUPS 2009, Mountain View, California, USA, July 15-17, 2009 (poster).

Kemal Bicakci, Bulent Tavli, “Denial-of-Service attacks and countermeasures in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks”, Computer Standards and Interfaces (Elsevier), Volume 31, Issue 5, September 2009, Pages 931-941.

Manel Guerrero-Zapata, Ruken Zilan, Jose M. Barcelo Ordinas, Kemal Bicakci, Bulent Tavli, “The Future of Security in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks: A position paper”, Telecommunication Systems (Springer), (accepted), 2009.

Kemal Bicakci, Mustafa Yuceel, Burak Erdeniz, Hakan Gurbaslar, Nart Bedin Atalay, “Graphical Passwords as Browser Extension: Implementation and Usability Study”, In Proc. Third IFIP WG 11.11 International Conference on Trust Management, June 15-19, 2009, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

Note: The articles are copyrighted by the respective publishers and may be downloaded only for personal use.

Education

Middle East Technical U., Informatics Institute Ankara, TURKEY

Ph.D. degree in information systems (September 2003).

Ph.D. Thesis: On the Efficiency of Authentication Protocols, Digital Signatures and Their Applications in E-Health: A Top-Down Approach.

University of Southern California (USC) Los Angeles, CA, USA

M.S. degree (program in computer networks) (May 1999).

Hacettepe University Ankara, TURKEY

B.S. degree in electronics engineering (July 1996).

B.S. Thesis: Implementation of RSA Crypto-system.

Ataturk Anatolian High School, Ankara, TURKEY

High school diploma (June 1992).

Employment

Assistant Professor Ankara, TURKEY

TOBB Economics and Technology University, August 2007- ?

Turkish Army Ankara, TURKEY

Compulsary Military Service August 2006 - July 2007

EU Education and Youth Programmes National Agency Ankara, TURKEY

IT Coordinator April 2006 - August 2006

Vrije University, Dept. Computer Science Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Postdoc Researcher August 2004 - January 2006

Middle East Technical University Ankara, TURKEY

Research Assistant (or Instructor) May 2000 – August 2006

USC Information Science Institute (ISI) Los Angeles, USA

Graduate Research Assistant January 1998 - March 2000

Middle East Technical University Ankara, TURKEY

Research Assistant July 1996 - August 1997

ASELSAN A. S., Civil Communications Department Ankara, Turkey

Summer Intern July 1995 - August 1995

Turkish Airlines Ankara, Turkey

Intern December 1993 - June 1994

Projects

Graphical Passwords 2008 - 2010

Design and Implementation of Secure and Usable Graphical Password Methods

It is well known that user authentication using alphanumerical passwords can not provide an adequate level of security for security-sensitive applications. Based on the fact that human can memorize pictures better than text, graphical passwords were recently proposed as a viable alternative. Graphical passwords are thought to be a solution for low entropy problem, password sharing, password stealing, etc. attributed to classical passwords. In this project, we will design, implement and evaluate a new graphical password method. The final objective of the project is to show that the new method will be more secure and more user-friendly than the previous methods in the literature.

Role: Project Coordinator

Funded by Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Institute (TUBITAK).

Avicenna 2004 - 2006

Network of universities for open distance learning.

Responsible for producing an online computer security and cryptography course.

Role: Tutor

Funded by UNESCO.

SecurE-Justice 2004 - 2006

Secure Communication and Collaboration Framework for the Judicial Co-operation Environment.

Responsible for security evaluation.

Role: Post doctorate Researcher

Funded by EU FP6.

SAS 1999 - 2000

Server Assisted Signatures

Implemented SAS protocol using OPENSSL library and extended X509 certificate handling code in OPENSSL for issuing custom SAS certificates.

Role: Graduate Research Assistant

Funded by NSF.

FLOTS 1998 - 2000

Flexible One-Time Signatures

Implemented one-time digital signature scheme using RSAREF and multiprecision library.

Role: Graduate Research Assistant

Funded by NSF

CRISIS 1998 - 1999

Critical Resource Allocation and Intrusion Response for Survivable Information Systems,

Participated in the design and definition of the common intrusion detection framework.

Role: Graduate Research Assistant

Funded by NSF

Teaching

Undergraduate Courses:

Information Security and Cryptography (Spring 2009)
Communication Systems (Spring 2008)
Communication Systems Lab (Spring 2008)
Digital Electronics (Fall 2007, Fall 2008)
Digital Electronics Lab (Fall 2007, Fall 2008)

Graduate Courses:

Wireless Networks (Fall 2008) (co-taught with Dr. Tavli)
Introduction to Information Systems (Fall 2003, Fall 2005),
Computer Security and Cryptography (Spring 2004, Fall 2005, Spring 2006),
Networking for Health Information Systems and Telehealth (Spring 2004, Spring 2006).

Supervised Thesis:

Yusuf Uzunay (2005 – 2006 Academic Year Middle East Technical University Best Thesis Award Winner.), Design And Implementation Of An Unauthorized Internet Access Blocking System Validating The Source Information In Internet Access Logs, MS Thesis, Middle East Technical University, September 2006.
Davut İncebacak, Design and implementation of a secure and searchable audit logging system, MS Thesis, Middle East Technical University, May 2007.
Bahadır İsmail Aydın, Electronic Voting with Trusted Computing, MS Thesis, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, August 2009.

Professional Activities

Program Committee Member for various conferences (HIBIT 2005, ATC 2006, 2nd National Cryptology Symposium, ABG 2008, etc.).
Reviewer for various Journals and International Conferences (Computer Communications, Internet Encyclopedia Wiley, ISCIS 2008, ICC 2006, WISA 2005, SecureComm 2005, SAC 2005, ISCC 2003, etc.)
Consultancy for Turkish Digital Signature Law.
Reviewer for TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Institute) and TTGV Projects.
Member of Turkish Informatics Association.
Consultancy for ILG Information Technologies.

Other Skills

LANGUAGES

English: Advanced (KPDS: 95/100, UDS: 97.5/100)

COMPUTER LANGUAGES

C, C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Visual Basic, SQL, Assembler.

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Windows, Windows 2003 Server Administration, Linux.

SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE

Openssl, RSAREF, Java Crypto Extension, other crypto libraries,

NS-2, network programming,

LTSpice, Electric, Matlab.

Honors

MS Thesis Supervisor of Yusuf Uzunay, 2005 – 2006 Academic Year Middle East Technical University Best Thesis Award Winner.
First PhD graduate of METU Informatics Institute.
Received a full scholarship from Turkish Government to pursue MS degree in USA.
Received several conference grants from TUBITAK.

Personal

Married with three children.
Enjoy reading and traveling.

References

Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Professor, Head of Computer Systems Section, Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Gene Tsudik, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Nazife Baykal, Director of Informatics Institute, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
Bruno Crispo, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Levent Ertaul, Associate Professor, Department of Math & Computer Science, California State University, EastBay, Hayward, CA, USA.

Click for CV and Full Publication List

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