Ajay Kumara

Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Computer Science

Department of Computer Science

University of North Carolina Wilmington

Biography

Dr. Ajay Kumara M. Annaiah is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Previously, he was a visiting assistant professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University and a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State, the University of Arizona, and Florida International University.

His research focuses on the intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, including malware and binary analysis, vulnerability detection, reverse engineering, obfuscation, virtual machine introspection, and memory forensics. He places particular emphasis on AI- and large language model (LLM)–driven techniques for solving core and emerging security challenges.

At UNCW, he leads the Cyber, Systems, and Software Security Research Lab (CS² Lab), where he collaborates closely with student researchers to develop intelligent, automated solutions for real-world cyber, system, and software security problems.

Interests

Cybersecurity & Privacy
Malware Analysis
Binary Code Analysis
Software Reverse Enginnering
Virtual Machine Introspection
Memory Forensics Analysis
Machine Learning & AI for Cybersecurity
Vulnerabality Analysis & Fuzzing
LLM for Security

Education

PhD, Computer Science & Cybersecurity, 2013-2018

National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India
B.E. and M.Tech in Computer Science, 2012.

Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka, India

Experience

Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity & Computer Science

University of North Carolina Wilmington

August 2024 – Present Wilmington, NC

Research in Cybersecurity & Privacy, Malware Analysis, Reverse engineering, Virtual machine introspection, Cloud security, Memory forensics, Binary code analysis, System & Software security, Machine learning, Deep Learning, and LLM.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Lenoir-Rhyne University

August 2021 – August 2024 Hickory, NC

Teaching in Cybersecurity and Computer Science Courses and Research in Cybersecurity and AI.

Postdoctoral Research Associate-I

University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

February 2021 – July 2021 Tucson, AZ

Research on static reverse engineering and obfuscation techniques. Building and configuring virtual machines for reverse and anti-reverse engineering tasks

Postdoctoral Researcher

Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

November 2019 – January 2021 State College, PA

Research on static binary code analysis techniques, binary disassembling, decompiler, reassembling, debugging, instrumentation, binary lifting, and LLVM-IR.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Applied Research Center, Florida International University, FL

December 2018 – November 2019 Miami, FL

Analyzed malware behavior using sandboxes on XEN and KVM Hypervisors in VM environments. Researched and tested the integration of new modules into the introspection system project at QEMU-KVM-hypervisor.

Tenure Track Assistant Professor

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Amrita University), Bengaluru, India

October 2017 – November 2018 Bengaluru, India

Research on Deep Learning for Malware Analysis. Teaching Undergraduates in Computer Security and Computer Science Courses.

Publications

Filter publications here.

Ajay Kumara M.A , Jaidhar C.D (2018). Automated Multi-level Malware Detection System based on the Reconstructed Semantic View of Executable using Machine Learning Techniques at VMM. The International Journal of Future Generation Computer Systems, Elsevier, Volume 79, Part 1, Pages 431-44, February 2018.

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Ajay Kumara M.A , Jaidhar C.D, (2017). Leveraging Virtual Machine Introspection with Memory Forensics to Detect and Characterize Unknown Malware using Machine Learning Techniques at Hypervisor. The International Journal of Digital Investigation, Elsevier, Volume 23, Pages 99-123, December 2017.

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Abhishek Kumar, Jaidhar C.D, and Ajay Kumara M.A (2019). Experimental Analysis of Android Malware Detection based on Combinations of Permissions and API-calls. Journal of Computer Virology and Hacking Techniques, Springer publisher, Volume 15, Issue 55, pages 1-10, May 2019.

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Rathinaraja Jeyaraj, Anandkumar Balasubramaniam,, Ajay Kumara M.A , Nadra Guizani, and Anand Paul, Sebastian Pokutta (2023). Resource Management in Cloud and Cloud-Influenced Technologies for IoT Applications. ACM Computing Surveys, Mar 2023.

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Prasanna Kumar Gurumallu, Rajeshwari Dembala, Darshini Yoge Gowda, Ajay Kumara Makanahalli Annaiah , Manoj Kumar Muttyal, Vasanth Kumar, and Hardik Gohel (2024). Exploring Deep Learning Approaches for Ransomware Detection: A Comprehensive Survey. Recent Advances in Computer Science and Communications, Volume 18, Issue 2, May 2024.

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Prashanth B S, Manoj Kumar M V, Puneetha B H, Ajay Kumara M A, (2025). A Data-Driven Framework for Detecting and Mitigating Concept Drift in Adaptive Artificial Neural Networks. Procedia Computer Science, Elsevier journal, 2025 (Accepted)

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Puneetha B H , Manoj Kumar M V , Prashanth B S, and Ajay Kumara M A, (2025). Enhancing Fairness and Performance: Scalable Hybrid Solutions for Class Imbalance in Big Data Analytics. Procedia Computer Science, Elsevier journal, 2025 (Accepted).

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