Md. Mazharul Islam

Md. Mazharul Islam

PhD Applicant in Cybersecurity and Trustworthy AI | Cloud, AI, and Cyber-Physical Systems Security Researcher

Hi, I am Md. Mazharul Islam, a Cloud Engineer and Cybersecurity Researcher preparing to pursue PhD in Computer Science, with a research focus on AI security, privacy-preserving systems, and secure intelligent infrastructure — among the most urgent challenges as AI becomes central to critical infrastructure and cloud environments.

🎯 Research Objective

Prospective PhD researcher specializing in:

  • Cybersecurity for cloud and distributed systems
  • Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence and AI security
  • Privacy-preserving systems and encrypted cloud storage
  • Secure cyber-physical systems (CPS) and critical infrastructure

🔬 Research Interests

  • Privacy-Preserving Computing & Cryptography — searchable encryption, homomorphic encryption, identity-based encryption, secure multi-party computation, and privacy-preserving cloud storage
  • Trustworthy AI & LLM Security — adversarial robustness, federated learning, secure fine-tuning of LLMs, RAG security, and defensive architectures for AI in safety-critical environments
  • Cyber-Physical Systems Security — anomaly detection, resilience, and secure communication in smart grids and IoT-enabled critical infrastructure
  • Blockchain & Decentralized Security — privacy-preserving distributed ledgers, smart contract security, and decentralized trust architectures

🧪 Research Highlights

  • Published journal and multiple international conference papers in cybersecurity, blockchain, AI security, and cloud security
  • First-author publication on privacy-preserving blockchain-based fraud detection in Engineering Reports (Wiley)
  • Proposed defensive architectures for securing Large Language Models in cyber-physical systems
  • Developed privacy-preserving encrypted cloud storage and search frameworks
  • Conducted research on machine learning-based anomaly detection in critical infrastructure systems
  • Built cyber-physical system simulation environments using NS3, HELICS, and GridPACK

🎓 Education

Master of Science (MSc), Computer Science and Engineering North South University, Bangladesh (Graduated: Summer 2020) CGPA: 3.97 / 4.00

Bachelor of Science (BSc), Computer Science and Engineering North South University, Bangladesh (Graduated: Summer 2018) CGPA: 3.24 / 4.00

🔬 Research Experience

Research Assistant — Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) Lab

United International University & North South University | Jan 2024 – Present

  • Designing and implementing a blockchain-based healthcare fraud detection framework using smart contracts and privacy-preserving cryptographic techniques.
  • Developing machine learning–based anomaly detection models to identify fraudulent and abnormal patterns in healthcare and critical infrastructure data.
  • Integrating privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) with decentralized systems to ensure secure, compliant, and tamper-resistant data processing.
  • Conducting experimental evaluation and performance analysis of detection accuracy, scalability, and system security.

Graduate Research Assistant — Cyber Physical System Research Lab

North South University | Feb 2022 – Apr 2024

  • Built and deployed cyber-physical system (CPS) testbeds for smart grid security research and attack-defense simulation.
  • Modeled and synchronized power system and communication layers using NS-3, HELICS, and GridPACK in Linux environments.
  • Developed co-simulation environments to analyze cyber-physical attack impacts, resilience, and anomaly detection strategies.
  • Automated simulation workflows and improved experimental reproducibility for large-scale CPS security experiments.

Graduate Teaching Assistant — Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering

North South University | Jul 2023 – Jun 2024

  • Assisted in teaching and mentoring students in Advanced DBMS, Simulation & Modeling, and Internet & Web Technologies.
  • Provided technical guidance on database design, system modeling, and web architecture concepts.
  • Evaluated assignments, supported lab sessions, and helped students implement real-world computing projects.

💼 Professional Experience

Assistant Manager (Cloud) — Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited (Apr 2024 – Present) Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provisioning and management; infrastructure automation with Terraform; cloud security, compliance, and SLA delivery.

Cybersecurity Instructor — Ethics Advanced Technology Limited (Sep – Nov 2023) Hands-on cybersecurity training for 50+ IT professionals from leading banks using EC-Council’s ICBT iLabs; network security, ethical hacking, and incident response.

Solution Engineer — One World Infotech Limited (Dec 2020 – May 2021) Enterprise deployments of multi-factor authentication (OneSpan); penetration testing, SOC transformation, and vulnerability assessments.

🏆 Academic Achievements

  • 🏅 Vice-Chancellor’s Gold Medal — North South University, 25th Convocation, December 2024
  • 🥈 2nd Place Globally — Huawei ICT Competition 2024 (Network Track), Shenzhen, China
  • 🥉 3rd Place Nationally — Huawei ICT Competition 2024, Bangladesh
  • 📝 Peer Reviewer — ICDCC-2024 (VIT Bhopal University) and ICIDS-2024 (Manipal University Jaipur)

🌐 Academic Profiles

🎓 PhD Research Goal

To develop secure, trustworthy, and resilient AI-enabled cloud and cyber-physical infrastructure that protects critical systems and enables safe deployment of intelligent technologies.