Benhur Tekeste portrait

Contact

Work

btkcad@rit.edu

Personal

benhurtekeste2020@gmail.com

RIT Dubai, UAE

Bio

2025–now Research Asst. RIT Dubai
2024–25 Research Asst. Khalifa U.
–2024 BSc Khalifa U.

Benhur Tekeste – Researcher in Cybersecurity and AI

Hello, I’m Benhur. I am a Researcher in Cybersecurity and AI at Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai. Previously, I worked as a research assistant at Khalifa University for about a year, where I focused on developing novel routing protocols for ad-hoc mesh networks. I have also earned several industry-recognized cybersecurity certifications.

My interest lies in securing systems and networks using applicable techniques, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. I have analyzed malicious software targeting Linux and Windows, so malware analysis and detection is one of the areas I want to explore in my graduate studies. I would also like to delve into IoT security. Let me know if you have security-focused projects, and I will be happy to work on them.

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Latest News (see all)

Sep'26 A conference paper was accepted at IEEE NCA.
May'26 My journal paper was published in IEEE Access.
Jul'25 I started working at Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai as a Research Assistant in Cybersecurity and AI.
Apr'25 I obtained my Certified Red Team Operator.
Nov'24 My colleagues and I presented the progress of our project during SSRC Summit 2024 organized by Technology Innovation Institute.
Jun'24 I obtained my eLearn Junior Penetration Tester.
Jan'24 I started working at Khalifa University as a Research Assistant in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Jan'24 I graduated in Computer Engineering from Khalifa University.
Oct'23 My colleague and I received the Sustainability Expert Award during GITEX AI InnovateFest 2023 by Alibaba Cloud.
Oct'23 I secured 2nd place in Cyber Energy Drill during ADIPEC 2023 organized by the UAE Cyber Security Council.

Services

  • Artifact Evaluation Committee Member – Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) 2027
  • External Reviewer – Workshop on Security, Trust, Privacy for Cyber-Physical Systems (IEEE STP-CPS)

Selected Publications

Towards Realistic Adversarial Robustness Evaluation for Intrusion Detection in Industrial Control Systems
Benhur Tekeste, Khalil Al-Hussaeni, Benjamin C. M. Fung, Ibtesam Alawadhi, and Claude Fachkha
IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA), 2026 · Accepted
Adversarial Machine Learning: A 20-Year Survey of Attacks, Defenses, and Standards
Benhur Tekeste, Khalil Al-Hussaeni, Benjamin C. M. Fung, Ibtesam Alawadhi, and Claude Fachkha
IEEE Access, vol. 14, pp. 69778–69812, 2026 · Cited by 7
IEEE Xplore DOI