Understanding Synthetic Politics on Reddit
Mixed-methods analysis of political deepfakes on r/politics and r/futurology, Dec 2022 to Feb 2026.
About
I am a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in the Security Research Group, advised by Dr. Pubali Datta. My research addresses security and privacy challenges in systems and online platforms, spanning cloud and network systems security, usable security and privacy, and agentic AI.
I received my B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2024, and worked as a university lecturer before joining UMass Amherst in Fall 2025.
News
- Poster accepted to USENIX Security '26; travel grants received for the conference and the GREPSEC VII workshop in Baltimore.
- Attended Brown Systems Week '26 at Brown University.
- Paper accepted to SOUPS 2026 (acceptance rate 16.2%).
- Poster at New England Security Day (NESD), UMass Amherst.
Received the David W. Stemple Scholarship in Computing from UMass Amherst. - Short talk at the Annual Boston Security Usable Research Day (ABSURD), Tufts University.
- Joined UMass Amherst as a PhD student in Computer Science.
Research
Securing systems with AI
- Reparo: a multi-LLM framework that generates, validates, and repairs access control policies (Cedar, OpenFGA, Rego) from repository artifacts, evaluated on 228 real-world repositories.
- Agentic AI authorization: exploring Cedar-based authorization for agentic AI systems.
Usable security and privacy
- Student scams: LLM-assisted analysis of 26K+ posts across 83 college subreddits; a survey and interview study on scams targeting international workers in the U.S. is in design.
- Synthetic media: how political deepfakes spread and are received on r/politics and r/futurology.
- App privacy: measuring the privacy practices of 50+ student-used apps.
Undergraduate research, BUET
LLM-based code review and refinement (undergraduate thesis; advisors Dr. Anindya Iqbal and Dr. Toufique Ahmed). We combined static program metadata (function call graphs) and natural-language summaries (CodeT5-base) with BM25-retrieved few-shot examples and QLoRA fine-tuning, using GPT-4o, GPT-3.5-turbo, Gemini-1.0-pro, Llama-3, and Code-Llama on the CodeReviewer dataset. The approach surpassed the state-of-the-art CodeReviewer model, exceeding 90% BLEU. Supported by a RISE-BUET research grant.
Attack detection in system logs (advisors Dr. Shohrab Hossain and Dr. Shahrear Iqbal). We built provenance graphs and reverse trees from the DARPA OPTC and TC E3 logs (stored in PostgreSQL), generated event traces, and used LLMs to classify behavior as benign or malicious.
Publications
2026
Quantifying Risk Perception and Scam Response Among International and Domestic U.S. University Students
A. X. Li, E. Bouma-Sims, L. Klucinec, R. Liu, A. B. Mostofa, A. Arunasalam, L. F. Cranor, P. Datta, L. Simko, K. Sowon
SOUPS 2026
2026
Reparo: Synthesizing and Validating Access Control Policies
A. B. Mostofa, G. Zhang, S. Stern, J. Zhai, P. Datta
Under review at a top-tier conference
2026
Characterizing Scam Experiences, Harms, and Responses Among U.S. College Students
A. B. Mostofa, K. Fatima, A. A. Kamath, A. Arunasalam, P. Datta
Under review at a top-tier conference
2026
Understanding Synthetic Politics on Reddit: Spread and Community Reactions to Political Deepfakes
A. B. Mostofa, P. Datta
USENIX Security '26 poster
2024
Advancing Code Review and Code Refinement Automation Using LLMs
A. B. Mostofa*, S. S. B. Mosaddek*, A. Haider*, T. Ahmed, A. Iqbal (*equal contribution)
Experience and Education
2025 – present
M.S./Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Massachusetts AmherstResearch Assistant (Summer and Fall 2026). Teaching Assistant, Fall 2025 and Spring 2026: COMPSCI 250 (Introduction to Computation) and COMPSCI 220 (Programming Methodology).
2024 – 2025
Full-time Lecturer, Presidency University (Jan–Jul 2025) and Canadian University of Bangladesh (Jul 2024–Jan 2025)
Courses taught
- Presidency University: Computer Programming (theory and lab), Digital Logic Design Lab, Machine Learning, Computer Application, Internet and Web Technology, Computer Architecture, Database Management Systems Lab, Computer Fundamentals and Information Technology
- Canadian University of Bangladesh: Computer Graphics (theory and sessional), Numerical Analysis, Object Oriented Programming (theory and sessional), Structured Programming (theory and sessional), Discrete Mathematics
2023
Machine Learning Intern, Red.Digital Limited (remote)Contributed to an Android app for client-side verification of National ID card images, using Android Studio, OpenCV, and TensorFlow Lite.
2019 – 2024
B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering, BUETCGPA 3.63/4.00 (last two years 3.86/4.00)
Honors and Service
2026
David W. Stemple Scholarship in Computing, UMass Amherst ($2,300)
2026
USENIX Security Travel Grant ($825); GREPSEC VII participant, 1 of 48 selected internationally (travel grant $1,175)
2026
External reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC)
2024
SUST Deep Learning Enigma 1.0, finalist (8th of 98 teams)
2023
RISE-BUET Research Grant for undergraduate thesis; NSysS research poster
2022 – 2024
Dean's List and university merit scholarship, BUET (Levels 3 and 4)
Projects
LLMComp
Prompt compression as a defense against LLM jailbreaks in monolingual and multilingual settings, extending SecurityLingua.
IaC-Eval replication and extension
Extended the benchmark to 458 AWS Terraform scenarios across six difficulty levels; assessed correctness, security, and compliance of LLM-generated code.
Deep Learning Network Steganography
Hiding a complete neural network inside another network while preserving the performance of both.
Regular Expression Game
A gamified web application for learning regular expressions, designed for COMPSCI 250.
Browse the 12 undergraduate projects → (machine learning, systems, AI, and software development, with code, reports, and demos).
Undergraduate course page → (course-by-course labs, assignments, and term projects).
Beyond Research
Leadership and mentoring
2021 – 2023
IEEE Computer Society, BUET Student Branch ChapterPublicity Committee Coordinator (2022–2023) and Media Committee Executive (2021–2022). Helped organize competitions, career talks, research seminars, and software development workshops.
2018 – 2021
Student tutorTutored middle school, high school, and undergraduate students.
2020 – 2024
Class recordingsMaintained lecture recordings for classmates on YouTube, starting during the COVID period.
Interests
Music
Four years of formal training at Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Chittagong; harmonium, keyboard, and kalimba.
Writing
Journals and stories in Bangla; recipient of a 2017 International Mother Language Day prize.
Game development
Interactive games built across C++/OpenGL, Java/JavaFX, and Python.
Digital art
Illustration and photo composition in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
