yomna nasser
I am a software engineer leading the Android Cellular Security Team at Google.

professional interests
cellular radio security, civil liberties, and mathematical cryptography

abridged work experience

Android Connectivity Security Team (2020 - current)

Implemented disabling insecure 2G cellular connections in Android 12 at the hardware level. (2020-2021)
Completed multiple Pixel cellular radio/modem Red Team excercises. (2020-2022)
Designed and implemented the ability to reject non-encrypted and non-ciphered cellular connections in Android 15. (2021-2023)
Designed and implemented (1) full transparency into the ciphering / integrity algorithms used by the modem for OTA radio communications, (2) information about cellular identifier disclosures (e.g. IMSIs, IMEIs, etc), including associated user notifications. (2022-2025)
Expertise in designing Android framework hardware APIs with OEMs, and facilitating security/privacy engineering discussions with carriers internationally.
Mentored intern(s) in radio attack implementations using open source GSM and LTE implementations.
Conducting regular design reviews of the security/privacy impact of new connectivity features in Android.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (2017-2020)

Software engineer on certbot (a Let's Encrypt client) and crocodile hunter.
- Livestreamed fixing bugs in Certbot on Twitch :)
Authored a primer on cellular security attacks

Various other software engineering jobs (2012-2016)

selected professional activities

Advisory Board Member - Electronic Frontier Foundation
CVD Panel of Experts - GSMA (Past)

selected publications and talks

The Attacker Has Expensive Radio Equipment, But Your Android Phone Is Resilient - Strange Loop (2023)
Fixing Insecure Cellular System Information Broadcasts For Good - RAID (2024)
Industry and Academic Collaboration in Cellular Security Research - ACM Wireless Security (2023)
Cellular radio null ciphers and Android - Real World Cryptography (2023)
Gotta Catch 'Em All: Understanding How IMSI-Catchers Exploit Cell Networks (2019)

academic program committees

contact
email: yomna {swirly a} yomna {dot} net
social media (personal): bluesky , mastodon

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