Insup Lee
Researcher @ Abu Dhabi, UAE
Ph.D. Candidate @ Korea University

I am an AI & Security Researcher based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, working on generative models for cybersecurity and drones. Previously, I spent five years as a researcher at the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), conducting research in AI-driven cybersecurity.

I am also a Ph.D. candidate in Cybersecurity at Korea University, where I earned my B.E. in Cyber Defense (CYDF).

My research interests lie at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, focusing on generative models, AI-driven security, network security, and secure communications

CV / Email / LinkedIn / Google Scholar/ ORCiD

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Research Interests
  • AI for Cybersecurity: cyber threat intelligence using NLP/LLM, hardware security (side-channel analysis), adversarial ML
  • Network and Wireless Security: drones, robust communications, network intrusion detection systems, anomaly detection
  • Generative Models: diffusion transformers and GANs for data augmentation, LLM for software vulnerability detection
Education
  • Ph.D. Candidate in Cybersecurity, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2019 - Present
    • Advisors: Prof. Sangjin Lee and Prof. Seokhie Hong
  • B.E. in Cyber Defense, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2014 - 2018
Employment History
  • Lecturer, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2025.9 - Present
  • Research Intern, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, 2025.3 - 2025.6
  • Security Engineer, Ministry of National Defense, Republic of Korea, 2023.8 - 2025.5
    • Led AI-based security projects and taught cybersecurity courses in the UAE
    • Published one international paper [J7] and 2 domestic papers
  • Researcher, Agency for Defense Development (ADD), Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2018.7 - 2023.7
    • Conducted AI-based security research and in-house software development (Advisor: Prof. Changhee Choi)
      (1) "Detection of Nation-Sponsored Cyber Attacks Using NLP Technologies" (Apr 2021 - Jul 2023)
      (2) "Generative Models for Cybersecurity Data Augmentation" (Jun 2019 - Oct 2020)
      (3) "IPADS: Integrated Proactive and Adaptive Defense Systems" (Aug 2018 - May 2019)
    • Published seven international papers [C1, C2, J2, J3, J4, J6, J8], four patents, and 12 domestic papers
Publications
Under Review
  • Multi-Domain Side-Channel Analysis for Anomaly Detection in Embedded System
    S. Park, D. Bae, I. Lee, J. Kim, H. Oh, H. Kim, and S. Hong
  • (Blind Review)
    J. Baek, G. Ahn, S. Park, D. Bae, G. Kim, I. Lee, H. Kim, and S. Hong
  • (Blind Review)
    D. Bae, S. Park, I. Lee, Y. Jung, K. Lee, H. Kim, and S. Hong
International Journals & Conferences
[J9] LeakDiT: Diffusion Transformers for Trace-Augmented Side-Channel Analysis
I. Lee, D. Bae, S. Hong, and S. Lee
IEEE Computer Architecture Letters 2026 [Paper]
(SCI 2024 Top 79.2% in Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture)
[J8] Multi-Step LLM Pipeline for Enhancing TTP Extraction in Cyber Threat Intelligence
H. Kim, D. Lee, I. Lee, S. Lee, and S. Lee
IEEE Access 2025 [Paper]
(SCI 2024 Top 34.8% in Engineering, Electrical & Electronic)
[J7] Enhancing Modulation Classification via Diffusion Transformers for Drone Video Signal Processing
I. Lee, K. Alteneiji, and M. Alghfeli
IEEE Signal Processing Letters 2025 [Paper]
(SCI 2024 Top 31.6% in Engineering, Electrical & Electronic)
[J6] MuCamp: Generating Cyber Campaign Variants via TTP Synonym Replacement for Group Attribution
I. Lee and C. Choi
IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS) 2025 [Paper]
(SCI 2024 I/F Top 7.8% in Computer Science, Theory & Methods)
[J5] UniQGAN: Towards Improved Modulation Classification With Adversarial Robustness Using Scalable Generator Design
I. Lee and W. Lee
IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC) 2024 [Paper]
(SCI 2023 I/F Top 4.9% in Computer Science, Software Engineering)
[J4] Camp2Vec: Embedding Cyber Campaign With ATT&CK Framework for Attack Group Analysis
I. Lee and C. Choi
ICT Express 2023 [Paper]
(SCI 2023 Top 23.0% in Computer Science, Information Systems)
[J3] Exploiting TTP Co-occurence via GloVe-Based Embedding With ATT&CK Framework
C. Shin, I. Lee, and C. Choi
IEEE Access 2023 [Paper]
(SCI 2023 Top 34.4% in Engineering, Electrical & Electronic)
[J2] BAN: Predicting APT Attack Based on Bayesian Network With MITRE ATT&CK Framework
Y. Kim, I. Lee, H. Kwon, G. Lee, and J. Yoon
IEEE Access 2023 [Paper]
(SCI 2023 Top 34.4% in Engineering, Electrical & Electronic)
[J1] UniQGAN: Unified Generative Adversarial Networks for Augmented Modulation Classification
I. Lee and W. Lee
IEEE Communications Letters 2022 [Paper]
(SCI 2023 Top 33.2% in Telecommunications)
[C3] Encrypted Malware Traffic Detection Using Incremental Learning
I. Lee, H. Roh, and W. Lee
IEEE INFOCOM - Poster Session 2020 [Paper]
[C2] Anomaly Dataset Augmentation Using Sequence Generative Models
S. Shin, I. Lee, and C. Choi
IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA) 2019 [Paper]
[C1] Opcode Sequence Amplifier Using Sequence Generative Adversarial Networks
C. Choi, S. Shin, and I. Lee
International Conference on ICT Convergence (ICTC) 2019 [Paper]
Patents
  • Method for Augmentating Cyber Attack Campaign Data to Identify Attack Group, and Security System Performing Same
    C. Choi and I. Lee
    Korea Patent Application Number. 10-2024-0176082, December 2, 2024.
  • Information Identification Method and Electronic Apparatus Thereof
    C. Choi, I. Lee, C. Shin, and S. Lee
    Korea Patent Application Number. 10-2024-0006106, January 15, 2024.
  • Method for Training Attack Prediction Model and Device Therefor
    C. Choi, C. Shin, S. Shin, S. Seo, and I. Lee
    U.S. Patent Number. US20230308462A1, September 28, 2023.
  • Appratus, Method, Computer-readable Storage Medium and Computer Program for Generating Operation Code
    C. Choi, S. Shin, and I. Lee
    Korea Patent Number. 10-2246797, April 30, 2021.
Domestic Journals & Conferences
  • S. Park, D. Bae, I. Lee, H. Kim, and S. Hong, “EM-Based Anomaly Detection using a Dual-Domain Approach,” in Proc. of the KIISC Winter Conference (CISC-W), Nov. 2025. (Selected as an Outstanding Paper Award)
  • J. Kim, I. Lee, C. Jeon, S. Kim, S. Hong, and S. Lee, “Reinforcement Learning for Parameter Optimization in CADO-NFS Polynomial Selection,” in Proc. of the KIISC Winter Conference (CISC-W), Nov. 2025.
  • S. Park, D. Bae, I. Lee, H. Kim, and S. Hong, “A Statistical Time-Domain Approach to Anomaly Detection for Robotic-Arm MCU,” in Proc. of the KIMST Fall Conference, Nov. 2025.
  • H. Park and I. Lee, “Enhanced DDoS Detection via Traffic Volume-Based Labeling and Transfer Learning,” Journal of Internet Computing and Services (JICS), vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1-8, Aug. 2025.
  • K. Kim and I. Lee, “User Behavior Embedding via TF-IDF-BVC for Web Shell Detection,” Journal of The Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology (JKIISC), vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 1231-1238, Dec. 2024.
  • I. Lee, C. Shin, and C. Choi, “Mutating Cyber Camapaign With TTP Word Replacement,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2023.
  • C. Shin, I. Lee, and C. Choi, “Towards GloVe-Based TTP Embedding With ATT&CK Framework,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2023.
  • C. Choi, I. Lee, C. Shin, and S. Lee, “Cyber Threat Campaign Analysis Based on PEGASUS and RoBERTa Model,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2023.
  • I. Lee, C. Shin, S. Shin, S. Seo, and C. Choi, “Analyzing Cyberattack Campaign Similarity via TTP Sequence Embedding,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2022.
  • S. Shin, I. Lee, C. Shin, S. Seo, and C. Choi, “Cyber Campaign Analysis With TTP Embedding Using TF-IDF,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2022.
  • C. Shin, S. Shin, I. Lee, S. Seo, and C. Choi, “Classifying TTP Based on CIA Labeling,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2022.
  • C. Choi, C. Shin, S. Shin, S. Seo, and I. Lee, “Cyber Attack Group Classification Using Siamese LSTM,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2022.
  • C. Shin, S. Shin, S. Seo, I. Lee, and C. Choi, “Embedding and Training RNN to Estimating the Goal of Cyber Attack,” in Proc. of the KIMST Fall Conference, Nov. 2021.
  • S. Shin, C. Shin, S. Seo, I. Lee, and C. Choi, “The Proposed Approach for Country Prediction With TTP-based Cyber Data Using GCN,” in Proc. of the KIMST Fall Conference, Nov. 2021.
  • C. Choi, C. Shin, S. Shin, S. Seo, and I. Lee, “Deep Learning for Estimating Next Action of Cyber Attack,” in Proc. of the KIMST Fall Conference, Nov. 2021.
  • Y. Park, S. Shin, and I. Lee, “A Study on Evaluation Method of NIDS Datasets in Closed Military Network,” Journal of Internet Computing and Services (JICS), vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 121-130, Apr. 2020.
  • I. Lee, J. Kim, and J. Park, “Analysis of Weight Setting in Incremental Learning to Improve Real-Time Intrusion Detection,” in Proc. of the KIMST Annual Conference, Jun. 2019.
Awards & Honors
  • KU Graduate School Achievement Award, February 2026
    Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • Outstanding Paper Award, CISC-W'25, KIISC, November 2025
    (Paper TItle: EM-Based Anomaly Detection using a Dual-Domain Approach)
  • UAE Ambassador’s Commendation for excellence in defense cooperation, March 2025
    Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the United Arab Emirates
  • The 3rd Prize, Military Cybersecurity Experts Hackathon (Cyber Talpiot), December 2023
    Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea
  • Full Tuition Scholarship (Korea University), 2014 - 2018
    Ministry of National Defense, Republic of Korea
Other Experience
  • AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC), DARPA and ARPA-H, USA, 2024.4 - 2024.8
    • Participated in the semifinal round as a member of Team KORIA, submitting our cyber reasoning system that leverages LLMs for automated detection and patching of software vulnerabilities
  • SW Outsourcing Development, KCMVP-Certified Cryptographic Module, 2017.6 - 2018.3
    • Implemented a cryptographic module with 25,000 LoC in C - ARIA block cipher (modes: ECB, CBC, CTR), hash functions (SHA-256, SHA-512), and HMAC-based DRBG for Windows (.dll) and Linux (.so)
Technical Skills
  • AI & Deep Learning: Generative models (diffusion transformers, GANs), LLM pipelines, Adversarial robustness
  • Cybersecurity: Side-channel analysis, CTI (TTP extraction, attribution), Cryptographic engineering (25k+ LoC)
  • Languages & Tools: Python, C/C++, CUDA, PyTorch, Linux, Git, Docker, Streamlit
Professional Activities
  • Reviewer, IEEE Transaction on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), 2025
  • Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2026
  • Reviewer, IEEE Transaction on Communications (TCOM), 2025, 2026
  • Reviewer, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), 2025, 2026
Teaching Experience
  • Lecturer, Fall 2025: Computer Networks (SCS302), Korea University

Last Update: February 2026