InspiringGroup

The InspiringGroup is a dynamic research group led by Prof. Zhuotao Liu. We have worked on a wide range of topics centering around data. We build secure and efficient networking and systems infrastructure to support data transmissions and computations. Meanwhile, we create various data-centric applications with special interests on data security and privacy.

Publications Join Us

Research

Secure Networking and Systems Infrastructure :
- Secure Internet Routing : [NDSS 26] [Security 24] [FC-BGP] [IWQoS 18]
- AI-Driven Traffic Analysis : [NDSS 26] [Security 25] [CCS 25] [S&P 25] [NDSS 24] [CCS24] [S&P 23] [CCS 23] [TDSC 22]
- DDoS Attack Prevention : [TDSC 24] [TIFS 22] [TIFS 19] [ToN 18] [CCS 16]
- Systems Security : [Security 23] [Security 22a] [Security 22b] [SIGMOD 22] [CCS 19] [ICNP 17]
AI and Data Security (with Applied Cryptography) :
- Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning : [CCS 25] [NDSS 24] [CCS 24]
- Federated Learning : [Security 24] [CCS 23]
- AI Security : [TIFS 24] [WWW 23] [TIFS 22] [CCS 21]
Networking Infrastructure for AI :
- Datacenter Networking : [NSDI 25] [ATC 23] [ToN 23] [TPDS 21] [TPDS 19] [INFOCOM 18]
- Intelligent Network Architecture : [SIGCOMM 25] [NSDI 24] [Security 23] [CoNEXT 22]
Web3.0 and Blockchain :
- Interoperability : [CCS 19]
- Web3.0 Infra and Application : [ISSTA 23] [TDSC 22]
- Zero-Knowledge Proof : [CCS 23]

Awards

2025

Distinguished Paper Award, ACM CCS, on applied cryptography for AI.

2025

中国电子学会2025电子信息教学成果大赛特等奖：“强化教材、科研驱动、实践引领”：网络空间安全导论创新教学体系

2025

中国电子学会科技进步一等奖：高效协作的互联网动态行为安全可信关键技术与应用

2024

Distinguished Paper Award, USENIX Security, on secure Internet routing.

2024

Internet Defense Prize, USENIX Security, on secure Internet routing.

2023

Distinguished Paper Award, USENIX Security, on on-chip AI for networking

2020

Google Feats of Engineering Award, on automated data center network management and capacity augmentation.

2019

Google Feats of Engineering Award, on scalable data center control plane and network availability improvement.

2018

INFOCOM Best-in-session Presentation Award, on data center networking.

2017

NSF I-Corps Award, on network security and DDoS prevention.

Latest News

Oct 2025

[Awards] Our paper on cryptography-based secure graph processing wins the Distinguished Paper Award in CCS 2025.

Sep 2025

[AI and Cryptography] Our paper on confidential/private inference over Transfomer-based large models via novel cryptography constructions is accepted by IEEE S&P 2026.

Aug 2025

[Applied AI for Traffic Analysis] Another three papers on RL-driven traffic analysis, website fingerprinting, and website application firewall are accepted by ISOC NDSS 2026.

July 2025

[AI-Driven Secure Internet Routing] Our paper on understanding BGP hijacking attacks given partially deployed ROV is accepted by ISOC NDSS 2026.

July 2025

[Academic Service] Another edition of USENIX Security. Looking forward to your submissions.

June 2025

[Applied AI in Networking] Our paper on addressing the robustness of AI-driven traffic analysis in dynamic networking conditions is accepted by ACM CCS 2025.

May 2025

[Applied AI in Networking] Our paper on certified robustness of AI-driven traffic analysis is accepted by USENIX Security 2025. This work features the most advanced provable robustness of AI models, in the domain of network traffic analysis!

... see all news

InspiringGroup

Research

Awards

Latest News

[Awards] Our paper on cryptography-based secure graph processing wins the Distinguished Paper Award in CCS 2025.

[AI and Cryptography] Our paper on confidential/private inference over Transfomer-based large models via novel cryptography constructions is accepted by IEEE S&P 2026.

[Applied AI for Traffic Analysis] Another three papers on RL-driven traffic analysis, website fingerprinting, and website application firewall are accepted by ISOC NDSS 2026.

[AI-Driven Secure Internet Routing] Our paper on understanding BGP hijacking attacks given partially deployed ROV is accepted by ISOC NDSS 2026.

[Academic Service] Another edition of USENIX Security. Looking forward to your submissions.

[Applied AI in Networking] Our paper on addressing the robustness of AI-driven traffic analysis in dynamic networking conditions is accepted by ACM CCS 2025.

[Applied AI in Networking] Our paper on certified robustness of AI-driven traffic analysis is accepted by USENIX Security 2025. This work features the most advanced provable robustness of AI models, in the domain of network traffic analysis!

Current and Past Affiliations