Daphne Yao

Cybersecurity, Enterprise Security, Anomaly Detection, Machine Learning

I have been at Virginia Tech since 2010, where my major field of interest is using machine learning to make security decisions in complex situations. The focus of my research is providing multi-level security protections for large organizations and enabling them to produce a quantitative and informed strategy for understanding their attack surfaces and proactively identifying potential threats.

The tool I developed — CryptoGuard — helps large software companies and Apache projects harden their cryptographic code. I have multiple U.S. patents for my inventions on network causal analysis for forensics and have authored a book Anomaly Detection as a Service that systematizes program anomaly detection.

Outside of Virginia Tech, I am involved in multiple inclusive excellence initiatives in the cybersecurity research community, including the National Science Foundation-sponsored Individualized Cybersecurity Research Mentoring Workshop and the Women in Cybersecurity Research Workshop.

Before coming to Virginia Tech, I received my Ph.D. from Brown University, two masters from Princeton University and Indiana University, Bloomington, and a bachelors from Peking University, China.

I first discovered a passion for this work ...
In grad school. But I've liked detective stories all along. Detecting and preventing cyber crimes and attacks seemed like a natural extension.

Something that excites me in my field ...
Technologies that have social impact and improve the quality of life.

My work impacts society ...
By creating new cyber defenses and making security problems less intimidating.

Groups or organizations that I am involved in ...
Association for Computing Machinery.

Honor or award I am most proud of ...
The best is yet to come.

I see the future in my field ...
More deployment-related research and addressing real-world cybersecurity issues with data science and automation.

I wish I invented ...
The microwave oven.

Words of encouragement to an aspiring inventor ...
Don't be afraid of thinking differently from others. Embrace your uniqueness.

My favorite quote ...
"Convert your radical ideas into products".

If I had a superpower, it would be ...
[To be] anxiety free

In my free time ...
I watch a lot of TV.

Last article I read ...
The wikipedia biography of Keigo Higashino, a brilliant and productive Japanese mystery author.

The best part of working at Virginia Tech ...
There is no traffic!