Hitesh Dharmdasani

I love building products. Especially ones that solve networking and security problems. I started Informant Networks in 2015 and have since also worked along side with AnexGate in building and deploying security products for the Indian market.

I previously was a Security Researcher at FireEye where I mainly researched new threats and did reverse engineering to improve malware detection. Prior to that I worked at The International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley where I was working on the monetization of bitcoin mining malware and web search order hijacking

During the course of my academics I had the great fortune of being advised by Dr. Damon McCoy. My interests lie in the intersection of Computer Security, Economics of Cyber crime and Machine Learning. I am also a part of the Center for Evidence-based Security Research (CESR)

Publications

Education

Blogs and Talks

• 101 - Bitcoin and Botnets
  A talk on bitcoin and the monetization of CPU cycles by Bots to make bitcoins for the Research Group at the Security Lab at GMU
• MisoSMS: Attacks on people in Korea with Judicial Keywords
  A talk at the Computer Antivirus Research Organization (CARO) 2014
  
• Introduction to Apache Spark
  PyBelgaum 2015, Belgaum
  
• What in the World is Big Data?
  A talk at the Computer Science Department at Maratha Mandal Engineering College, Belgaum
  
• Cyber Crime for SME's and the Common Man
  A talk at the Rotary Club of Belgaum Main, Masonic Hall, Belgaum
  
• Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin
  A talk on Crytocurrencies and Bitcoin at KLS Institute of Management Education and Research, Belgaum
  
• Detecting Phishing URLs using Decision Trees
  PyCon India 2015, Bangalore
  
• Introduction to HDFS
  Talk for Masters of Technology graduates in Computer Science at GIT Belgaum
  
• Blockchain and Bitcoin
  Belgaum chapter of TiE Hubli, Belgaum
  
• What is the Internet?
  A talk for begineers in computer networking, part of the Prerna Lecture series
  
• Learn Python [Workshop Material]
  A one day workshop on Python at Goa University, Part of the Python Express Initiative
  
• Information Security, Network Security and Cyber crime
  Two day workshop for faculty of Master of Computer Applications at Gogte College Belgaum
  
• Internet, Online Attacks and Vulnerabilities
  A talk at the Jain College of Engineering
  
• Dissecting Android KorBanker
  Hitesh Dharmdasani and Vinay Pidathala
  FireEye Blog.
  
• MisoSMS: New Android Malware Disguises Itself as a Settings App, Steals SMS Messages
  Vinay Pidathala, Hitesh Dharmdasani, Jinjian Zhai and Zheng Bu
  FireEye Blog.
  
• Android.HeHe: Malware Now Disconnects Phone Calls
  FireEye Blog.
  
• From Windows to Droids: An Insight in to Multi-vector Attack Mechanisms in RATs
  Hitesh Dharmdasani, Thoufique Haq, Vinay Pidathala and Nart Villeneuve
  FireEye Blog.