Biography
Iftekhar Salam is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Research and Industrial Collaborations at the School of Computing and Data Science, Xiamen University Malaysia. He received his B.Eng. degree from Multimedia University, Malaysia, in 2008, his M.Sc. degree from Dongseo University, South Korea, in 2011, and his PhD degree from Queensland University of Technology, Australia, in 2018. From 2011 to 2018, Iftekhar held academic and research positions in Korean, Malaysian, and Australian universities and research institutes. Since 2018 he has been working as an academic staff at Xiamen University Malaysia.
Iftekhar is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and an EC-Council Certified Encryption Specialist (ECES). He is also a member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM).
Iftekhar's main research expertise is in cryptology, particularly in the design and analysis of symmetric cryptographic primitives. His research interests also encompass a broad range of information security topics, including privacy-preserving computation, post-quantum cryptography, searchable encryption, blockchain and its applications, and machine learning-based cryptanalysis. Iftekhar has published over 30 scientific papers within these areas. He has served on the Editorial Board of PLOS ONE since 2022 and is frequently invited as a technical program committee member and reviewer for international conferences and journals in the fields of security and computing. He has also led several research grants, including projects funded by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.
Research Interest
Symmetric Cryptography, Post-Quantum Cryptography, Cryptanalysis, Side-Channel Analysis, Privacy Preserving Computation, Blockchain, Stream Ciphers, Authenticated Encryption, Machine Learning
Educational Background
PhD (Information Security), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia (2018)
MSc (Information Security), Dongseo University, Busan, South Korea (2011)
Bachelor of Electronics Engineering (Telecommunications), Multimedia University, Selangor, Malaysia (2008)
Working Experience
Associate Professor, School of Computing and Data Science, Xiamen University Malaysia, Malaysia (2022 to Current)
Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Data Science / School of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia, Malaysia (2018 to 2022)
Visiting Researcher, Department of Software Engineering, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh (2024 to current)
Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Computer Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (2022 to 2023)
Sessional Academic, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Australia (2015 to 2017)
Research Officer, Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Malaysia (2013 to 2014)
Member of Engineering Staff, Broadcasting and Telecommunications Convergence Future Technology Research Department, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea (2011 to 2012)
Research Experience
Project leader
Investigating the security of lightweight authenticated encryption primitives, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, 2021 - 2023, MYR 84,200 (Project Leader)
Advanced Cryptanalysis of Symmetric Cryptographic Primitives and their Components, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2022 - 2026, MYR60,000 (Project Leader)
Analysis of Lightweight Cryptography Algorithms, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2019 - 2023, MYR60,000 (Project Leader)
Co-researcher
Data Hiding-based Lightweight Authentication in the Multi-UAV Network Domain, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, 2024 - 2026, MYR 75,200 (Co-researcher)
Developing climate-risk adaptation indices towards supporting access to finance for climate-sensitive sectors in Malaysia, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, 2022 - 2024, MYR 82,000 (Co-researcher)
Towards Robust Federated Learning: Integrated Defences Against Stealthy Backdoor Attacks, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2025 - 2028, MYR60,000 (Co-researcher)
A Unified Hybrid Intrusion Detection System for UAV Networks Using MAVLink and UAVCAN Protocols, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2025 - 2028, MYR60,000 (Co-researcher)
• A Qualitative Exploratory Study on Challenges in STEM Education among Malaysia's Visually Impaired, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2025 - 2028, MYR15,000 (Co-researcher)Developing a Standardized Benchmark Dataset for Detecting Second-Order SQL Injection Vulnerabilities, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2025 - 2027, MYR30,000 (Co-researcher
ecure and Energy-efficient Data Hiding in Flying Ad-hoc Networks, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2024 - 2026, MYR30,000 (Co-researcher)
Intelligent Urban Transport Management and Design, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2020 - 2021, MYR60,000 (Co-researcher)
Cross Microprocessor Quad Directional Control Flow Integrity Framework for Securing Internet of Things (IoT) Microprocessor Level Software, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2020 - 2023, MYR60,000 (Co-researcher)
IoT Cybersecurity Risk Detection and Mitigation Using Online Device Identification, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2022 - 2024, MYR60,000 (Co-researcher)
Stegano-M: Steganography Techniques for Motion Capture Data, Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund (XMUMRF), 2019 - 2024, MYR60,000 (Co-researcher)
Representative Publications
Samuel Russel Prajasantosa, Iftekhar Salam*, Differential Fault Analysis of TinyJAMBU, In: Boyd, C., Safavi-Naini, R., Simpson, L. (eds) Information Security in a Connected World, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15600, Springer, Cham, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83490-5_4
Md Nasiruzzaman, Maaruf Ali, Iftekhar Salam and Mahdi H. Miraz, The Evolution of Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) from Concept to Implementation, 2025 29th International Conference on Information Technology (IT), Zabljak, Montenegro, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1109/IT64745.2025.10930254
Qi Wen Gan, Wei-Chuen Yau, YS Gan, Iftekhar Salam, Shihui Guo, Chin-Chen Chang, Yubing Wu, Luchen Zhou, DSteganoM: Deep steganography for motion capture data, Expert Systems with Applications, Volume 238, Part C, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.121955
Clifford Choe Wei Chang, Tan Jian Ding, Chloe Choe Wei Ee, Wang Han, Johnny Koh Siaw Paw, Iftekhar Salam, Mohammad Arif Sobhan Bhuiyan & Goh Sim Kuan, Nature-Inspired Heuristic Frameworks Trends in Solving Multi-objective Engineering Optimization Problems, Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-024-10090-x
Iftekhar Salam, Wei-Chuen Yau, Raphaël Phan, and Josef Pieprzyk, Differential fault attacks on the lightweight authenticated encryption algorithm CLX-128, Journal of Cryptographic Engineering, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13389-023-00326-0
Tuan-Hong Chua, Iftekhar Salam*, Evaluation of Machine Learning Algorithms in Network-Based Intrusion Detection Using Progressive Dataset, Symmetry, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15061251
Zheng Yao Ng, Iftekhar Salam*, Blockchain-Based Multi-keyword Search on Encrypted COVID-19 Contact Tracing Data, Information Security Practice and Experience - ISPEC2022, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13620, pp. 75–92. Springer, Cham, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21280-2_5
Hasindu Madushan, Iftekhar Salam, Janaka Alawatugoda, A Review of the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Finalists and Their Fault Analyses, Electronics 2022, 11(24), 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11244199
Tian Lim Tan, Iftekhar Salam*, Madhusudan Singh, Blockchain-based Healthcare Management System with Two-side Verifiability, PLOS ONE 17(4): e0266916, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266916
Wil Liam, Iftekhar Salam*, Wei-Chuen Yau, Josef Pieprzyk, & Raphaël C.W. Phan, Cube Attacks on Round-Reduced TinyJAMBU, Scientific Reports, 12, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09004-3
Bang Yuan Chong & Iftekhar Salam*, Investigating Deep Learning Approaches on the Security Analysis of Cryptographic Algorithms, Cryptography, 5(4), 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography5040030
Iftekhar Salam, Thian Hooi Ooi, Luxin Xue, Wei-Chuen Yau*, Josef Pieprzyk, and Raphaël C-W. Phan, Random Differential Fault Attacks on the Lightweight Authenticated Encryption Stream Cipher Grain-128AEAD, IEEE Access 9, pp. 72568-72586, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3078845
Iftekhar Salam*, Kim Young Law, Luxin Xue, and Wei-Chuen Yau, Differential fault based key recovery attacks on TRIAD, In International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology - ICISC 2020, pp. 273-287. Springer, Cham, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68890-5_15
Harry Bartlett, Ed Dawson, Hassan Qahur Al Mahri, Md. Iftekhar Salam, Leonie Simpson, Kenneth Koon-Ho Wong, Random Fault Attacks on a Class of Stream Ciphers, Security and Communication Networks, vol. 2019, Article ID 1680263, 12 pages, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/1680263
Md Iftekhar Salam, Leonie Simpson, Harry Bartlett, Ed Dawson, Josef Pieprzyk, Kenneth Koon-Ho Wong, Investigating Cube Attacks on the Authenticated Encryption Stream Cipher MORUS, In Proceedings of the 16th IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/ICESS, pp. 961-966, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1109/Trustcom/BigDataSE/ICESS.2017.337
Md Iftekhar Salam, Kenneth Koon-Ho Wong, Harry Bartlett, Leonie Simpson, Ed Dawson, Josef Pieprzyk, Finding State Collisions in the Authenticated Encryption Stream Cipher ACORN, In Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference - ACSW 2016, ACM, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2843043.2843353
• For full list of publications, please refer to:
o https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LUPvD_8AAAAJ&hl=en
o https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1395-4623
Honors / Awards
Best Paper Award – “Cube Attacks on Round-Reduced Grain-128AEAD” presented in the 6th International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Computing 2023 (iCETiC '23)
Awarded QUT Postgraduate Research Scholarship (QUTPRA), QUT Top Up Scholarship and QUT HDR Tuition Fee scholarship for pursuing PhD degree at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
Awarded full time scholarship for pursuing Master’s degree at Dongseo University, Korea.