Assistant Professor

Department of Computer Science
Old Dominion University

Office: 3111 E&CS Building

Tel: (757) 683-7798

Address: 4700 Elkhorn Ave, ECSB 3300,
Norfolk, VA 23529

Email: shao /AT/ odu.edu


Short Bio


I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk, VA. I am also affiliated with ODU's School of Cybersecurity. Prior to joining ODU, I worked as a Postdoc Researcher in the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) at University of California San Diego, working with Dr. Alberto Dainotti and Dr. Amogh Dhamdhere. I obtained my Ph.D. from Department of Computer Science at the College of William and Mary, advised by Dr. Haining Wang.

[2019/06] Starting Fall 2019, I will be a tenure-track assistant professor in Department of Computer Science at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA.

[2018/01] I am joining CAIDA at UC San Diego as a Postdoctoral Researcher.

[2017/11] I defended my Ph.D. from College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.

[2017/09] I am working as a Research Intern in Computer Security Department at NEC Laboratories America in Princeton, New Jersey.

Research


My research interest lies in Networking and Security, with the specific focus on applying measurement, empirical study, and data-driven approach to study Internet Infrastructure (Topology, Routing, DNS, CDN, etc.), Security and Privacy of Internet and Networking Systems, Web Security and Privacy, and Cybercrime.

Recent & Selected Publications


  1. Haitao Xu, Yiwen Sun, Kaleem Ullah Qasim, Shuai Hao, Wenrui Ma, Zhenyuan Li, Fan Zhang, Meng Han, and Zhao Li.
    Understanding the Business of Online Affiliate Marketing: An Empirical Study,
    in IEEE INFOCOM, May 2025.
    @inproceedings{Xu:Infocom25,

    author = {Xu, Haitao and Sun, Yiwen and Qasim, Kaleem Ullah and Hao, Shuai and Ma, Wenrui and Li, Zhenyuan and Zhang, Fan and Han, Meng and Li, Zhao},
    title = {{Understanding the Business of Online Affiliate Marketing: An Empirical Study}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)},
    year = {2025},
    }

  2. Yanchen Lu, Hongyu Lin, Zehua He, Haitao Xu, Zhao Li, Shuai Hao, Liu Wang, Haoyu Wang, and Kui Ren.
    TacDroid: Detection of Illicit Apps through Hybrid Analysis of UI-based Transition Graphs,
    in the 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), April 2025.
    @inproceedings{Lu:ICSE25,

    author = {Lu, Yanchen and Lin, Hongyu and He, Zehua and Xu, Haitao and Li, Zhao and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Liu and Wang, Haoyu and Ren, Kui},
    title = {{TacDroid: Detection of Illicit Apps through Hybrid Analysis of UI-based Transition Graphs}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 47th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)},
    year = {2025},
    }

  3. Rui Bian, Lin Jin, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, and Chase Cotton.
    Silent Observers Make a Difference: A Large-scale Analysis of Transparent Proxies on the Internet,
    in IEEE INFOCOM, May 2024.
    @inproceedings{Bian:Infocom24,

    author = {Bian, Rui and Jin, Lin and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{Silent Observers Make a Difference: A Large-scale Analysis of Transparent Proxies on the Internet}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)},
    year = {2024},
    }

  4. Guannan Liu, Lin Jin, Shuai Hao, Yubao Zhang, Daiping Liu, Angelos Stavrou, and Haining Wang.
    Dial “N” for NXDomain: The Scale, Origin, and Security Implications of DNS Queries to Non-Existent Domains,
    in ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), October 2023.
    @inproceedings{Liu:IMC23,

    author = {Liu, Guannan and Jin, Lin and Hao, Shuai and Zhang, Yubao and Liu, Daiping and Stavrou, Angelos and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{Dial "N" for NXDomain: The Scale, Origin, and Security Implications of DNS Queries to Non-Existent Domains}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)},
    year = {2023},
    }

  5. Minyuan Zhou*, Xiao Zhang*, Shuai Hao, Xiaowei Yang, Jiaqi Zheng, Guihai Chen, and Wanchun Dou.
    Regional IP Anycast: Deployments, Performance, and Potentials,
    in ACM SIGCOMM, September 2023. (*co-first authors)
    @inproceedings{Zhou:sigcomm2023,

    author = {Zhou, Minyuan and Zhang, Xiao and Hao, Shuai and Yang, Xiaowei and Zheng, Jiaqi and Chen, Guihai and Dou, Wanchun},
    title = {{Regional IP Anycast: Deployments, Performance, and Potentials}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM)},
    year = {2023},
    }

  6. Guannan Liu, Daiping Liu, Shuai Hao, Xing Gao, Kun Sun, and Haining Wang.
    Ready Raider One: Exploring the Misuse of Cloud Gaming Services,
    in the 29th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS), November 2022.
    @inproceedings{Liu:CCS2022,

    author = {Liu, Guannan and Liu, Daiping and Hao, Shuai and Gao, Xing and Sun, Kun and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{Ready Raider One: Exploring the Misuse of Cloud Gaming Services}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 29th ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)},
    year = {2022},
    }

  7. Rebekah Houser, Shuai Hao, Chase Cotton, and Haining Wang.
    A Comprehensive, Longitudinal Study of Government DNS Deployment at Global Scale,
    in the 52nd IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), June 2022.
    @inproceedings{Houser:DSN2022,

    author = {Houser, Rebekah and Hao, Shuai and Cotton, Chase and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{A Comprehensive, Longitudinal Study of Government DNS Deployment at Global Scale}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 52nd Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN)},
    year = {2022},
    }

  8. Lin Jin, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, and Chase Cotton.
    Understanding the Practices of Global Censorship through Accurate, End-to-End Measurements,
    in ACM SIGMETRICS, June 2022.
    @inproceedings{Jin:SIGMETRICS2022,

    author = {Jin, Lin and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{Understanding the Practices of Global Censorship through Accurate, End-to-End Measurements}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM on Measurement and Analysis of Computing Systems (ACM SIGMETRICS)},
    year = {2022},
    }

  9. Rui Bian, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, and Chase Cotton.
    Shining a Light on Dark Places: A Comprehensive Analysis of Open Proxy Ecosystem,
    in Computer Networks, Volume 208, May 2022.
    @article{Bian:COMNET2022,

    author = {Bian, Rui and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{Shining a Light on Dark Places: A Comprehensive Analysis of Open Proxy Ecosystem}},
    journal = {Elsevier Computer Networks},
    volume = {208},
    year = {2022},
    }

  10. Alexander Gamero-Garrido, Esteban Carissimo, Shuai Hao, Bradley Huffaker, Alex C. Snoeren, and Alberto Dainotti.
    Quantifying Nations' Exposure to Traffic Observation and Selective Tampering,
    in Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM), March 2022. ( Best Dataset Award)
    @inproceedings{AlexG:PAM2022,

    author = {Gamero-Garrido, Alexander and Carissimo, Esteban and Hao, Shuai and Huffaker, Bradley and Snoeren, Alex C. and Dainotti, Alberto},
    title = {{Quantifying Nations' Exposure to Traffic Observation and Selective Tampering}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM)},
    year = {2022},
    }

  11. Lin Jin, Shuai Hao, Yan Huang, Haining Wang, and Chase Cotton.
    DNSonChain: Delegating Privacy-Preserved DNS Resolution to Blockchain,
    in the 29th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP), November 2021.
    @inproceedings{Jin:ICNP21,

    author = {Jin, Lin and Hao, Shuai and Huang Yan and Wang, Haining and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{DNSonChain: Delegating Privacy-Preserved DNS Resolution to Blockchain}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 29th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP)},
    year = {2021},
    }

  12. Hao Yang, Kun Du, Yubao Zhang, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, Jia Zhang, and Haixin Duan.
    Mingling of Clear and Muddy Water: Understanding and Detecting Semantic Confusion in Blackhat SEO,
    in the 26th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS), October 2021.
    @inproceedings{Yang:ESORICS21,

    author = {Yang, Hao and Du, Kun and Zhang, Yubao and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Duan, Haixin},
    title = {{Mingling of Clear and Muddy Water: Understanding and Detecting Semantic Confusion in Blackhat SEO}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 26th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS)},
    year = {2021},
    }

  13. Rebekah Houser, Shuai Hao, Zhou Li, Daiping Liu, Chase Cotton, and Haining Wang.
    A Comprehensive Measurement-based Investigation of DNS Hijacking,
    in the 40th International Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS), September 2021.
    @inproceedings{Houser:SRDS2021,

    author = {Houser, Rebekah and Hao, Shuai and Li, Zhou and Liu, Daiping and Cotton, Chase and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{A Comprehensive Measurement-based Investigation of DNS Hijacking}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 40th International Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS)},
    year = {2021},
    }

  14. Lin Jin, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, and Chase Cotton.
    Understanding the Impact of Encrypted DNS on Internet Censorship,
    in the 30th The Web Conference (WWW), April 2021.
    @inproceedings{Jin:WWW2021,

    author = {Jin, Lin and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{Understanding the Impact of Encrypted DNS on Internet Censorship}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 30th The Web Conference (WWW)},
    year = {2021},
    }

  15. Yubao Zhang, Shuai Hao, and Haining Wang.
    Review Trade: Everything is Free in Incentivized Review Groups,
    in the 16th International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm), October 2020.
    @inproceedings{Zhang:SecureComm20,

    author = {Zhang, Yubao and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{Review Trade: Everything Is Free in Incentivized Review Groups}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm)},
    year = {2020},
    }

  16. Yubao Zhang, Jidong Xiao, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, Sencun Zhu, and Sushil Jajodia.
    Understanding the Manipulation on Recommender Systems through Web Injection,
    in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), Volume 15, 2020.
    @article{Zhang:TIFS2020,

    author = {Zhang, Yubao and Xiao, Jidong and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Zhu, Sencun and Jajodia, Sushil},
    title = {{Understanding the Manipulation on Recommender Systems through Web Injection}},
    journal = {IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security},
    volume = {15},
    year = {2020},
    }

  17. Lin Jin, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, and Chase Cotton.
    Unveil the Hidden Presence: Characterizing the Backend Interface of Content Delivery Networks,
    in the 27th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP), October 2019.
    @inproceedings{Jin:ICNP2019,

    author = {Jin, Lin and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{Unveil the Hidden Presence: Characterizing the Backend Interface of Content Delivery Networks}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 27th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP)},
    year = {2019},
    }

  18. Rui Bian, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, Amogh Dhamdere, Alberto Dainotti, and Chase Cotton.
    Towards Passive Analysis of Anycast in Global Routing: Unintended Impact of Remote Peering,
    in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (CCR), Volume 49 Issue 3, Jul. 2019.
    @article{Bian:CCR2019,

    author = {Bian, Rui and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Dhamdere, Amogh and Dainotti, Alberto and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{Towards Passive Analysis of Anycast in Global Routing: Unintended Impact of Remote Peering}},
    journal = {ACM SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev.},
    volume = {49},
    number = {3},
    issue_date = {July 2019},
    publisher = {ACM},
    year = {2019},
    }

  19. Shuai Hao, Yubao Zhang, Haining Wang, and Angelos Stavrou.
    End-Users Get Maneuvered: Empirical Analysis of Redirection Hijacking in Content Delivery Networks,
    in the 27th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security), August 2018.
    @inproceedings{Hao:USENIX2018,

    author = {Hao, Shuai and Zhang, Yubao and Wang, Haining and Stavrou, Angelos},
    title = {{End-Users Get Maneuvered: Empirical Analysis of Redirection Hijacking in Content Delivery Networks}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 27th USENIX Security Symposium},
    year = {2018},
    }

  20. Lin Jin, Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, and Chase Cotton.
    Your Remnant Tells Secret: Residual Resolution in DDoS Protection Services,
    in the 48th IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), June 2018.
    @inproceedings{Jin:DSN2018,

    author = {Jin, Lin and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Cotton, Chase},
    title = {{Your Remnant Tells Secret: Residual Resolution in DDoS Protection Services}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 48th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN)},
    year = {2018},
    }

  21. Haitao Xu*, Shuai Hao*, Alparslan Sari, and Haining Wang.
    Privacy Risk Assessment on Email Tracking,
    in IEEE INFOCOM, April 2018. (*co-first authors)
    @inproceedings{Xu:INFOCOM2018,

    author = {Xu, Haitao and Hao, Shuai and Sari, Alparslan and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{Privacy Risk Assessment on Email Tracking}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)},
    year = {2018},
    }

  22. Shuai Hao and Haining Wang.
    Exploring Domain Name Based Features on the Effectiveness of DNS Caching,
    in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (CCR), Volume 47 Issue 1, Jan. 2017.
    @article{Hao:CCR2017,

    author = {Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{Exploring Domain Name Based Features on the Effectiveness of DNS Caching}},
    journal = {ACM SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev.},
    volume = {47},
    number = {1},
    issue_date = {January 2017},
    publisher = {ACM},
    year = {2017},
    }

  23. Daiping Liu, Shuai Hao, and Haining Wang.
    All Your DNS Records Point to Us: Understanding the Security Threats of Dangling DNS Records,
    in the 23rd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), October 2016.
    @inproceedings{Liu:CCS2016,

    author = {Liu, Daiping and Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining},
    title = {{All Your DNS Records Point to Us: Understanding the Security Threats of Dangling DNS Records}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 23rd ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)},
    year = {2016},
    }

  24. Shuai Hao, Haining Wang, Angelos Stavrou, and Evgenia Smirni.
    On the DNS Deployment of Modern Web Services,
    in the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP), November 2015. (Best Paper Nominee)
    @inproceedings{Hao:ICNP2015,

    author = {Hao, Shuai and Wang, Haining and Stavrou, Angelos and Smirni, Evgenia},
    title = {{On the DNS Deployment of Modern Web Services}},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols (ICNP)},
    year = {2015},
    }

Professional Activities


  • Program Committee
    ACM IMC '24 '25
    ACM CCS '25
    USENIX Security '25
    IEEE/IFIP DSN '20 '21 '22 '24 '25
    IEEE EuroS&P '25
    PAM '22 '23 '24 '25
    IEEE CNS '22 '23 '24
    ACSAC '24
    RAID '23
    ICICS '21 '22 '25
    MADWeb '24 '25

  • Professional Services
    IEEE CNS '22 - Poster Chair, Panelist

  • Conference Reviewer

    WWW '23
    ESORICS '21 '22
    ACM CODASPY ’22
    IEEE INFOCOM '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23
    IEEE/IFIP DSN '14 '15 '16 '17 '19
    ACM CCS '17 '18
    ACM IMC '18 (Shadow PC)
    IEEE CNS '15 '18
    IEEE HASE '17
    ACM IWSPA '17
    SecureComm '15 '16
    SECRYPT '16
    IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland) '15
    ICICS '13 '19

  • Journal Reviewer
    IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN)
    IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS)
    IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC)
    IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC)
    IEEE Transactions on Computers
    ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (Formerly TISSEC)
    ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems
    Computer Networks (COMNET)
    Journal of Computer Security
    Journal of Computer Communications (ComCom)
    Journal of Communications and Networks
    Journal of Security and Communication Networks
    International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks
    IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine
    EAI Transactions on Security and Safety
    Communications of the Association for Information Systems
    IEEE Communications Letters

Teaching


  • CS 772/872 - Advanced Computer and Network Security: Spring'24, Fall'22, Spring'21
  • CS 761/861 - Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering: Fall'24, Fall'23, Fall'22, Fall'21
  • CS 464/564 - Networked Systems Security: Spring'25, Fall'24, Spring'24, Spring'23, Spring'22
  • CS 465/565 - Information Assurance: Spring'22, Spring'20
  • CS 469/569 - Data Analytics for Cybersecurity: Fall'21
  • CS 795/895 - Topics: Internet Infrastructure and Security: Fall'19

Visting & Internship


  • Research Intern, NEC Labs America, Princeton, NJ, Sep. 2017 - Jan. 2018
    Computer Security Department - Mentor: Dr. Junghwan Rhee
  • Research Intern, HP Labs China, Beijing, 2012
  • Visiting Research Scholar, Tsinghua University, 2011 - Mentor: Dr. Ke Xu
Updated Dec. 2024