CV
I am seeking Ph.D. positions in security and privacy that connect human-centered research with cyber threat detection, cyber threat intelligence, malware analysis, and cybercrime. I am especially interested in how human analysts investigate, interpret, and make decisions from EDR data, security telemetry, TTPs, and attack evidence—and in how attackers think, adapt, and operate.
Research Interests
Human-centered threat detection; cyber threat intelligence; malware analysis; cybercrime; attack detection; EDR and security telemetry; TTPs and adversarial behavior; usable security; and security risk analysis. I am particularly interested in how analysts interpret technical evidence, investigate incidents, and make decisions under uncertainty, as well as how attackers think, adapt, and operate across cyber threats.
Education
B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Expected December 2026 - Grade: 85.5/100.0
Cybersecurity, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), Virginia, United States
August 2023 - May 2024 - Community College Initiative Program, U.S. Department of State; GPA: 4.0/4.0; graduated summa cum laude.
Research Experience
Research Intern, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, Bochum, Germany
March 2025 - August 2025
- Conducted qualitative research on the life cycle of online gambling addiction, analyzing personal testimonies to identify deceptive design patterns across regulated and unregulated platforms.
- Worked in the Human-Centered Security and Privacy group under the supervision of Dr. Yixin Zou.
- Contributed to an international study on security and privacy advice across nine Majority World countries, including data collection in Brazil.
Research Intern, Trustworthy Cyberspace Lab, Virginia Tech, Remote
October 2023 - November 2024
- Second author of a systematic interdisciplinary review of cybergrooming research, synthesizing evidence from 79+ studies.
- Curated datasets and code resources to support ongoing work on online child safety under the supervision of Dr. Jin-Hee Cho.
Professor’s Assistant, Intern, C4I & Cyber Center, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States
November 2023 - February 2024
- Investigated Zero Trust Architecture for communication among drone swarms and evaluated flight-simulation platforms for future research use.
Professional Experience
Cyber Intelligence Analyst, Wabtec, Contagem, Brazil
September 2026 - Present
- Work as a Cyber Intelligence Analyst, extending my applied cybersecurity experience alongside my academic research agenda.
Cybersecurity Analyst, Hotmart, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
March 2026 - August 2026
- Investigated security events and anomalies in large-scale production environments using IBM QRadar, CrowdStrike, and observability data.
- Correlated security signals to support threat triage, risk identification, and remediation decisions.
- Developed operational documentation and onboarding playbooks that standardized security workflows and communicated good practices across teams.
Publications
Collins Munyendo, Veronica Rivera, Jackie Hu, Emmanuel Tweneboah, Amna Shahnawaz, Karen Sowon, Dilara Keküllüoğlu, Marcos Silva, Yue Deng, Mercy Omeiza, Gayatri Priyadarsini Kancherla, Maria Rosario Niniz Silva, Maryam Mustafa, Abhishek Bichhawat, Francisco Marmolejo-Cossio, Elissa M. Redmiles, Yixin Zou. “I Wonder if These Warnings Are Accurate”: Security and Privacy Advice in Nine Majority World Countries. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P), 2026 (to appear). PDF
Heajun An, Marcos Silva, Qi Zhang, Arav Singh, Minqian Liu, Xinyi Zhang, Sarvech Qadir, Sang Won Lee, Lifu Huang, Pamela Wisniewski, Jin-Hee Cho. Toward Integrated Solutions: A Systematic Interdisciplinary Review of Cybergrooming Research. Revise and resubmit at ACM Computing Surveys. arXiv:2503.05727
Selected Honors
- 3rd Place, CTF Competition at UFMG (2024)
- 2nd Place, UBC 2.0 Ideathon (2024)
- Community College Initiative Program Scholarship, U.S. Department of State (2023-2024)
- Presidential Scholars Award, Northern Virginia Community College (2024)
- Dean’s List Award, Northern Virginia Community College (2023)
Technical Background
Python, C, C++, Django, JavaScript, HTML/CSS; IBM QRadar, CrowdStrike, Wireshark, Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Nmap, and AWS security services. Portuguese (native), English (fluent), and Spanish (basic).