Ramakrishnan Sundara Raman

About Me

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I am a fifth year PhD candidate at the University of Michigan Computer Science and Engineering department, where I am advised by Prof. Roya Ensafi. My primary research interests surround Internet Security and Privacy. In particular, I am interested in using Internet measurement methods to detect, analyze and prevent large-scale threats to Internet users' security and privacy.

My research involves measuring Internet censorship and network interference at global scale. I lead work on the Censored Planet Observatory, which is a platform for measuring various types of network interference continuously around the world. My work also involves understanding and analyzing the technologies that enable censorship and surveillance.

Previously, I was a research intern at Cloudflare Research in Summer 2022. I was also an OTF Senior ICFP Fellow in Information Controls at The Citizen Lab, University of Toronto, working on identifying the network devices that perform network interference.

Publications

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Detecting DNS Manipulation using TLS Certificates BibTex

@inproceedings{tsai2023detecting,
title = {Detecting DNS Manipulation using TLS Certificates},
author = {Tsai, Elisa and Kumar, Deepak and Sundara Raman, Ram and Li, Gavin and Eiger, Yael and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)},
year={2023}
}

Elisa Tsai, Deepak Kumar, Ram Sundara Raman, Gavin Li, Yael Eiger, Roya Ensafi
To Appear - Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS) 2023, July 2023

Advancing the Art of Censorship Data Analysis BibTex

@inproceedings{sundararaman2023advancing,
title = {Advancing the Art of Censorship Data Analysis},
author = {Sundara Raman, Ram and Virkud, Apurva and Laplante, Sarah and Fortuna, Vinicius and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI)},
year={2023}
}

Ram Sundara Raman, Apurva Virkud, Sarah Laplante, Vinicius Fortuna, Roya Ensafi
Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) 2023, February 2023

Network Measurement Methods for Locating and Examining Censorship Devices BibTex

@inproceedings{sundararaman2022network,
title = {Network Measurement Methods for Locating and Examining Censorship Devices},
author = {Sundara Raman, Ram and Wang, Mona and Dalek, Jakub and Mayer, Jonathan and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={In ACM International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT)},
year={2022}
}

Ram Sundara Raman^*, Mona Wang^*, Jakub Dalek, Jonathan Mayer, Roya Ensafi
ACM International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT), December 2022
🏅 IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize 2023

A Large-scale Investigation into Geodifferences in Mobile Apps BibTex

@inproceedings{kumar2022geodifferences,
title={A Large-scale Investigation into Geodifferences in Mobile Apps},
author={Renuka Kumar and Apurva Virkud and Ram Sundara Raman and Atul Prakash and Roya Ensafi},
booktitle={USENIX Security Symposium},
year={2022} }

Renuka Kumar, Apurva Virkud, Ram Sundara Raman, Atul Prakash, Roya Ensafi
USENIX Security Symposium, August 2022

A Multi-Perspective View of Internet Censorship in Myanmar BibTex

@inproceedings{padmanabhan2021multi-perspective,
title = {A Multi-Perspective View of Internet Censorship in Myanmar},
author = {Padmanabhan, Ramakrishna and Filastò, Arturo and Xynou, Maria and and Sundara Raman, Ram and Middleton, Kennedy and Zhang, Mingwei and Madory, Doug and Roberts, Molly and Dainotti, Alberto},
booktitle={In ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI 2021)},
year={2021}
}

Ramakrishna Padmanabhan, Arturo Filastò, Maria Xynou, Ram Sundara Raman, Kennedy Middleton, Mingwei Zhang, Doug Madory, Molly Roberts, Alberto Dainotti
ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI), August 2021

Lost in Transmission: Investigating Filtering of COVID-19 Websites BibTex

@inproceedings{vyas2021lost,
title = {Lost in Transmission: Investigating Filtering of COVID-19 Websites},
author = {Vyas, Anjali and Sundara Raman, Ram and Ceccio, Nick and Lutscher, Philipp and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={In Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC)},
year={2021}
}

Anjali Vyas, Ram Sundara Raman, Nick Ceccio, Philipp Lutscher, Roya Ensafi
Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC), March 2021

Censored Planet: An Internet-wide, Longitudinal Censorship Observatory BibTex

@inproceedings{sundararaman2020censoredplanet,
title = {Censored Planet: An Internet-Wide, Longitudinal Censorship Observatory},
author = {Sundara Raman, Ram and Shenoy, Prerana and Kohls, Katharina and Ensafi, Roya},
booktitle={In ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)},
year={2020}
}

Ram Sundara Raman, Prerana Shenoy, Katharina Kohls, Roya Ensafi
ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), November 2020

Investigating Large Scale HTTPS Interception in Kazakhstan BibTex

@inproceedings{sundararaman2020investigating,
title={{Investigating Large Scale HTTPS Interception in Kazakhstan}},
author={R. Sundara Raman, L. Evdokimov, E. Wustrow, A. Halderman, and R. Ensafi},
booktitle={In ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)},
year={2020}
}

Ram Sundara Raman, Leonid Evdokimov, Eric Wustrow, J. Alex Halderman, Roya Ensafi
ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), October 2020
🏅 Best Paper Award Nominee

Measuring the Deployment of Network Censorship Filters at Global Scale BibTex

@inproceedings{sundararaman2020measuring,
title={Measuring the Deployment of Network Censorship Filters at Global Scale},
author={R. Sundara Raman, A. Stoll, J.Dalek, R. Ramesh, W.Scott, R.Ensafi},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, NDSS 2020, San Diego, California, USA},
year={2020}
}

Ram Sundara Raman, Adrian Stoll, Jakub Dalek, Reethika Ramesh, Will Scott, Roya Ensafi
Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), February 2020

Decentralized Control: A Case Study of Russia BibTex

@inproceedings{ramesh2020decentralized,
title={Decentralized Control: A Case Study of Russia},
author={R. Ramesh, R. Sundara Raman, M. Bernhard, V. Ongkowijaya, L. Evdokimov, A. Edmundson, S. Sprecher, M. Ikram, R.Ensafi},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, NDSS 2020, San Diego, California, USA},
year={2020}
}

Reethika Ramesh, Ram Sundara Raman, Matthew Bernhard, Victor Ongkowijaya, Leonid Evdokimov, Annie Edmundson, Steve Sprecher, Muhammad Ikram, Roya Ensafi
Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), February 2020
🏅 CSAW'20 Applied Research Competition North America Top 10 Paper

Teaching

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• Winter 2023 Course: EECS 588 - Computer & Network Security
  Position: Substitute Instructor
  I substitited as the sole instructor for this graduate level course when the lead instructor was not available during the first month of the course.

• Winter 2022 Course: EECS 388 - Introduction to Computer Security
  Position: Guest Lecturer
  I delivered a guest lecture on Censorship and Circumvention.

• Fall 2020 Course: EECS 588 - Computer & Network Security
  Position: Lead Graduate Student Instructor
  In this virtual course, my responsibilities included assisting with designing the course, leading the course while the instructor was on maternity leave, managing the the course lecture and discussion, holding office hours for students, helping students with course projects, and grading.

News

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• 23 January 2023 I had a great time interacting with the Internet Freedom Community and giving a talk at the 2023 OTF Summit in Austin, Texas

• 16 January 2023 Grateful to be receive a 2023 North Campus Deans MLK Spirit Award

• 09 January 2023 I am delighted and honored to receive the IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP) for my work on studying censorship devices. I was also featured on the UM CSE news page

• 06 December 2022 I presented my recent work on examining censorship devices at CoNEXT 2022. Blogposts about my work were published at OTF News and Censored Planet.

  

See more news →

Service

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• I served as a reviewer for the 6th International Conference on Computer Science and Application Engineering (CSAE).

• I served as a session chair for the HTTPS censorship session at ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI 21)

• I served as a technical program committee member for ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI 21)

See more service →

Awards

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• 16 January 2023 North Campus Deans’ MLK Spirit Awards 2023

• 09 January 2023 IRTF Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP) 2023

• 15 July 2022 HotPETs 2022 Best Talk Award

See more awards →

Talks

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• January 2023 Title: Exploring Internet Censorship Data through the Censored Planet Dashboard
  Venue: OTF Summit 2023
  

• July 2022 Title: Improving Usability of Internet Censorship Data through a Censorship Dashboard
  Venue: HotPETs 2022
  Award: 🏅 HotPETs Best Talk Award

• June 2022 Title: Exploring Internet censorship with the Censored Planet Dashboard
  Venue: RightsCon 2022
  

• 25 March 2022 Title: Censored Planet: An Internet-wide, Longitudinal Censorship Observatory
  Venue: The 5th Annual Data for Public Good Symposium
  

• 4 October 2021 Title: Censored Planet Webinar: Censored Planet tools, data, and new capabilities
  Venue: Censored Planet Community Webinar 2021
  

• 21 February 2021 Title: Censored Planet: An Internet-wide Longitudinal Observatory
  Venue: 2021 NDSS DNS Privacy workshop
  

• 26 June 2020 Title: Censored Planet: Measuring Internet censorship remotely
  Venue: OONI Internet Measurement Village
  

Blogposts & Reports

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• 05 December 2022 Title: Profiling Internet Censors: Methods to Measure and Locate Censorship Devices
  Venue: Open Technology Fund (OTF) News

• 15 February 2021 Title: An analysis of a large-scale HTTPS interception
  Venue: APNIC Blog

• 10 August 2020 Title: Technical Report: US Government and military websites are geoblocked from Hong Kong and China
  Venue: Censored Planet

Projects

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Censored Planet Observatory

I am the primary developer and maintainer of the Censored Planet Observatory, which is a platform for measuring Internet censorship and network interference continously and globally. The observatory uses thousands of remote infrastructural vantage points from over 170 countries to continuously monitor disruption tactics used by authorities around the world. All data collected using the Observatory is made public for use by researchers and policy-makers, and we have already released several reports based on data from the Observatory. I also maintain the Observatory website, which contains several visualizations of our data.

Map showing the Observatory's vantage point distribution:

Map showing percentage of disruption detected using Satellite in different countries:

Kazakhstan's HTTPS Interception

I led Censored Planet's investigation into the interception of HTTPS connections of Internet users in Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan government began using a fake root CA from July 20 2019 to perform a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack against HTTPS connections to websites including Facebook, Twitter, and Google. This behavior significantly weakened Internet for Kazakh Internet users, who were instructed to manually trust the fake CA certificate. Our investigation suggested that only a portion of the Internet users in Kazakhstan were affected in what appeared to be a pilot test of the system. Our live measurements reveal that the attack was stopped on August 6 2019, and an official statement from the Kazakhstan Government suggests they will turn on the system "when necessary".

Live tracking of Censored Planet observatory vantage points observing the intercepion:

See more projects →