Wayne Huang, PhD

Co-Founder and Board Member

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ABOUT

Dr. Wayne Huang 黃耀文博士 is a Co-Founder and Board Member of Unitas Foundation. He is also the Co-Founder and Group CEO of XREX Inc.

Wayne is an internationally-recognized cybersecurity expert instrumental in developing innovative blockchain-based solutions currently used in several emerging markets. Before XREX, Wayne served as VP Engineering to Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT), where he spent five years building and growing TAP (Targeted Attack Protection) from 0 to $400M+ in ARR (annual recurring revenue), servicing 9 of the top 10 US banks, and 56 of Fortune 100. Prior to Proofpoint, Wayne was Co-Founder and CEO of Armorize Technologies, which was acquired by Proofpoint in 2013. A diligent blogger about cyber threats, Wayne’s cybersecurity research has received worldwide media coverage, including reports in Reuters, Forbes, IDG, USA Today, Wired, Dark Reading, The Register, The Hacker News, SC Magazine, eWeek, Threat Post, CSO, and Krebs on Security.

Wayne first-authored 5 well-cited, peer-reviewed papers published by ACM and IEEE, and 3 US-issued patents. Wayne received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science Group from National Taiwan University, and a BS and an MS in Computer Science from National Chiao Tung University. In his spare time, Wayne enjoys mountaineering, trekking, and studying history and economics.

EXPERIENCE

• Unitas Foundation Aug 2022 - present Co-Founder & Board Member

• XREX

  Aug 2018 - present | Taipei

  Co-Founder & CEO XREX is a blockchain-enabled financial institution working with banks, regulators, and users to redefine banking together. We provide enterprise-grade banking services to small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in or dealing with emerging markets, and novice-friendly financial services to individuals worldwide.

  Founded in 2018 and operating a Monetary Authority of Singapore's Major Payment Institution license and a Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission's Registered VASP status, XREX offers a full suite of services such as digital asset custody, wallet, cross-border payment, fiat-crypto conversion, cryptocurrency exchange, asset management, and fiat currency on-off ramps.

  XREX is backed by public companies, banks, and prominent VCs, including:

  • Taiwan National Development Fund

  • Tether

  • SBI Investment (TYO:8473)

  • CDIB Capital Group (TWSE:2883)

  • E.Sun Financial Holding (TWSE:2884)

  • ThreeD Capital (CSE:IDK)

  • Systex (TWSE:6214)

  • Global Founders Capital

  • Metaplanet Holdings

  • Seraph Group

  • AppWorks

  • WI Harper Group

  • Black Marble Capital Management

  • New Economy Ventures

  • BitoEx

  • Toivo Annus

• Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT) Aug 2013 - Jun 2018 | Sunnyvale CA

  VP Engineering

  Proofpoint is a leading cybersecurity company that provides the most effective cybersecurity and compliance solutions to protect people on every channel, including email, the web, the cloud, social media, and mobile messaging.

• Armorize Technologies

  Jan 2006 - Aug 2013 | San Francisco & Taipei

  Co-Founder & CEO / CTO

  Armorize Technologies (acquired by Proofpoint (NASDAQ: PFPT)) is a leading cybersecurity company offering Web application security and malware detection solutions. Armorize specializes in the detection and prevention of advanced, targeted threats.

• Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica

  1999 - 2005 | Taipei

  Research Engineer

  As a part of a 4-year mandatory military service term.

  Researched and developed defense technologies against advanced persistent threats (APTs) against Taiwan's government, military, and intelligence infrastructure.

  First-authored multiple peer-reviewed papers that each has 750+ citations according to Google Scholar. Acquired 2 US patents.

EDUCATION

• National Taiwan University NTU 2004 - 2012 Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Computer Science Group First-authored multiple peer-reviewed cybersecurity papers that each have 750+ citations according to Google Scholar.

• National Chiao-Tung University NCTU 1997 - 1999 Master, Computer Science

• National Chiao-Tung University NCTU 1993 - 1997 Bachelor, Computer Science

KEYNOTES

Wayne frequently speaks at cybersecurity and blockchain conferences, including Chain-in 2018, BLOCKConscious Summit 2018, SecTor 2018, Blockchain Technology Conference 2018, Swiss Cyber Storm 2018, BlackHat US 2010, BlackHat APAC 2017, DEFCON 2010, RSA USA 2007, 2010, 2015, 2016, RSA APAC 2015, Hack in Paris 2017, Troopers 2016, AusCERT 2016, Virus Bulletin 2016, SteelCon 2016, Hack.lu 2016, HackFest 2016, SyScan Taiwan 2008, 2009, OWASP Asia 2007, 2008, Hacks in Taiwan 2006, 2007, WWW 2003, 2004, and PHP 2007.

PAPERS & PATENTS

First-authored, peer-reviewed academic papers

• "Web application security assessment by fault injection and behavior monitoring." Yao-Wen (Wayne) Huang, Shih-Kun Huang, Tsung-Po Lin, Chung-Hung Tsai. In Proceedings of the 2003 ACM International Conference on the World Wide Web, 2003, . pp. 148-159.
• "Securing web application code by static analysis and runtime protection." Yao-Wen (Wayne) Huang, Fang Yu, Christian Hang, Chung-Hung Tsai, Der-Tsai (D.T.) Lee, Sy-Yen Kuo. In Proceedings of the 2004 ACM International Conference on the World Wide Web, 2004, . pp. 40-52.
• "Verifying Web Applications Using Bounded Model Checking." Yao-Wen (Wayne) Huang, Fang Yu, Christian Hang, Chung-Hung Tsai, Der-Tsai (D.T.) Lee, Sy-Yen Kuo. In Proceedings of the IEEE 2004 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (IEEE DSN 2004), pages 199-208, Florence, Italy, Jun 28-Jul 1, 2004.
• "Non-detrimental Web application security scanning." Yao-Wen (Wayne) Huang, Chung-Hung Tsai, Der-Tsai (D.T.) Lee, Sy-Yen Kuo. In 15th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2004), Saint-Malo, France, Nov 2-5, 2004.
• "A testing framework for Web application security assessment." Yao-Wen Huang, Chung-Hung Tsai, Tsung-Po Lin, Shih-Kun Huang, D.T. Lee, Sy-Yen Kuo. Journal of Computer Networks 48(5), pp. 739-761, Feb 12, 2005.

First-authored, US-issued patents

• "System and method for securing web application code and verifying correctness of software." Yao-Wen Huang, Fang Yu, Chung-Hung Tsai, Christian Hang, Der-Tsai Lee, Sy-Yen Kuo US Patent 8555269, Issued Oct 3, 2013
• "System and method for securing web application code and verifying correctness of software." Yao-Wen Huang, Fang Yu, Chung-Hung Tsai, Christian Hang, Der-Tsai Lee, Sy-Yen Kuo US Patent 7779399, Issued Aug 17, 2010
• "Behavior profiling for malware detection." Wayne Huang, M. James Idle US Patent 10102372, Issued Oct 16, 2018

STABLECOIN-RELATED POSTS

• BlockTempo, 2020 Nov 28 Sovereignty and the Right of Coinage: How CBDC will infringe on weak regimes
• Forkast News, 2022 Mar 31 Should Tether’s shrinking cash reserves be cause for investor worry?
• XREX Medium, 2022 May 19 Stablecoins: A take on their reserves, transparency, regulatory and operational risks
• XREX Medium, 2022 Sep 21 Could Stablecoin UST have revived from the death spiral? Insights from an algorithmic stablecoin’s depeg
• XREX Medium, 2022 Oct 6 Three Dimensions of Decentralization: Stablecoin and DAO as Examples

BLOCKCHAIN AML-RELATED POSTS

• XREX Medium, 2020 Oct 15 First suspicious Bitcoin transaction series detected
• HackerNoon, 2020 Nov 7 Exposing the Nigerian Crypto Scam Group - "Operation N-Fiverr"

CYBERSECURITY-RELATED COVERAGE

• Wired, 2010-12-10 by Kim Zetter Google DoubleClick Caught Serving Malicious Ad
• Forbes.com, 2010-08-16 by Andy Greenberg Record Five Million Sites Were Likely Infected By Hacked Web Widget
• USA TODAY, 2011-08-11 by Byron Acohido Millions of Web pages are hacker landmines
• The Verge, 2014-10-07 by Russel Brandom Inside a Russian malware scheme that hijacked 500,000 computers
• MIT Technology Review, 2014-10-15 by Mike Orcutt Windows XP Is Still a Favorite Among Hackers
• The Register, 2011-08-13 by Dan Goodin Attack targeting open-source web app keeps growing
• The Register, 2011-08-02 by Dan Goodin Malware attack spreads to 5 million pages (and counting)
• The Register, 2011-04-19 by John Leyden Flash cache exploit debuts in Amnesty attack
• The Register, 2010-12-13 by Dan Goodin Ad networks owned by Google, Microsoft serve malware
• IDG News, 2010-12-11 by Robert McMillan Google, Microsoft Ad Networks Briefly Hit With Malware
• IDG News, 2010-7-15 by Robert McMillan Talk on China Cyber Army pulled after pressure
• IDG News, 2008-12-09 by Robert McMillan Update: New Web attack exploits unpatched IE flaw
• IDG News, 2008-5-19 by Sumner Lemon Mass SQL Injection Attack Targets Chinese Web Sites
• IDG News, 2007-11-15 by Robert McMillan With Web 2.0, a New Breed of Malware Evolves
• BankInfoSecurity, 2014-10-9 by Mathew J. Schwartz Hackers Grab 800,000 Banking Credentials
• PYMNTS.com, 2014-10-10 How Cyberthieves Were Able To Steal 500,000 Bank Credentials
• eWeek, 2010-12-10 by Brian Prince Google DoubleClick Found Serving Malicious Ad
• eWeek, 2010-08-16 by Brian Prince Infected Widget Compromises Parked Domains
• eWeek, 2009-09-22 by Jim Rapoza Live at DEMOfall 2009: Getting Secure and Getting Paid
• CNET, 2011-09-26 by Elinor Mills Hacked MySQL.com used to serve Windows malware
• CNET, 2010-05-26 by Elinor Mills Firms tackle virus-laden Web sites, ads
• Dark Reading, 2011-08-09 by Tim Wilson 'Willysy' osCommerce Injection Attack Affects More Than 8 Million Pages
• Dark Reading, 2010-08-18 by Mathew J. Schwartz Malware Spewing Widget Hacks 500,000 Websites
• Dark Reading, 2010-08-17 by Kelly Jackson Higgins Mass Drive-By Attack Used Web Widget
• Threat Post, 2014-10-23 by Chris Brook Malvertising Campaign on Yahoo, AOL, Triggers CryptoWall Infections
• Threat Post, 2011-08-04 by Brian Donohue Massive Injection Campaign Affecting More Than Six Million Pages
• Threat Post, 2011-07-26 by Brian Donohue Massive iFrame Attack Hits More than 90,000 Pages
• ThreatPost, 2010-12-12 by Dennis Fisher Major Ad Networks Found Serving Malicious Ads
• ThreatPost, 2010-08-16 by Paul Roberts Network Solutions Malicious Widget May Date to January
• Krebs on Security, 2011-08-05 by Brian Krebs Is That a Virus in Your Shopping Cart?
• KrebsOnSecurity, 2010-08-16 by Brian Krebs NetworkSolutions Sites Hacked By Wicked Widget
• Slashdot, 2010-08-16 5 Million Domains Serving Malware Via Network Solutions
• Mashable, 2009-09-22 by Ben Parr HackAlert: Web Apps Finally Get Secure Venture Beat, 2009-09-22 by Dean Takahashi DEMO: Armorize’s HackAlert notifies you if your web site is under attack
• TechCrunch, 2009-06-16 Armorize Lands More Funding For Web App Security Technology
• CSO, 2014-10-08 by Antone Gonsalves An inside look at Russian cybercriminals
• CSO, 2011-07-28 by Ellen Messmer E-Commerce Sites Based on Open Source Code Under Attack
• CSO, 2011-07-26 by Bill Brenner Drive-by download infects more than 90,000 sites, Armorize warns
• PC Magazine, 2011-08-08 Millions of e-commerce Sites Hacked to Serve Malware
• PC Magazine, 2010-08-16 Innocuous Network Solutions Web Widget Served Malware
• SC Media, 2014-10-07 Group infects more than 500K systems, targets banking credentials in U.S.
• SC Media, 2011-08-01 Mass injection campaign affects 3.8 million pages
• SC Media, 2010-08-16 Up to five million parked domains served malware widget
• CRN, 2011-07-29 by Stefanie Hoffman iFrame Attack Infects More Than 300,000 osCommerce Sites
• PCWorld, 2011-08-06 by John P. Mello Jr. Speedy Malware Infects More than 6 Million Web Pages
• ZDNet, 2014-10-07 by Toby Wolpe Windows XP: Still big in botnets after all these years?
• ZDNet, 2011-07-28 by Dancho Danchev 90,000+ pages compromised in mass iFrame injection attack
• ZDNet UK, 2010-08-17 by Elinor Mills Malicious widget attacks compromise parked domains
• Computerworld, 2010-08-16 by Gregg Keizer Malicious widget hacked millions of Web sites
• InfoWorld, 2010-12-10 by Robert Lemos The DoubleClick attack and the rise of malvertising
• InfoWorld, 2010-08-17 by Robert Lemos Network Solutions versus the wily widget
• Help Net Security, 2010-08-18 by Zeljka Zorz Mass injection attack compromised 20,000+ domains, delivers fake AV
• Help Net Security, 2011-08-01 by Zeljka Zorz, Mass iFrame injection attack now counts millions of compromised web pages
• Help Net Security, 2011-07-26 by Zeljka Zorz, 90,000+ web pages compromised through iFrame injection
• Help Net Security, 2010-12-13 by Zeljka Zorz, Malware spread via Google, Microsoft ad network
• Softpedia, 2011-08-17 by Lucian Constantin New Mass Injection Attack Infects over 20K Websites
• Softpedia, 2011-08-01 by Lucian Constantin Number of osCommerce Infected Pages Raises to Millions in Under a Week
• Softpedia, 2010-12-11 by Lucian Constantin Drive-By Scareware Malvertizements Served by Large Ad Networks
• SPAMfighter News, 2011-08-05 Armorize Unleash Massive Iframe Injection Assault
• SPAMfighter News, 2014-10-14 Proofpoint Discovers Russian Cyber-Crime Gang, Attacker of Over 500K PCs
• SPAMfighter News, 2011-07-16 Armorize Unleash Massive Iframe Injection Assault
• SPAMfighter News, 2010-08-21, Millions of Web Websites Hacked by Malicious Widget
• SPAMfighter News, 2010-06-07 Around 1000 US Websites Serve Malware
• The H, 2011-08-03 Millions of osCommerce stores hacked
• The H, 2011-04-20 Exploit on Amnesty pages tricks AV software
• HK Cert, 2011-08-02 Mass Injection Attacks Targeting osCommerce Vulnerabilities

TALKS

(follow the links to watch talk videos)

• SecTor 2018, Toronto 25 Techniques to Gather Threat Intel and Track Actors (with Sun Huang)
• BLOCKConscious 2018, Brisbane Hacking Blockchain for Fun and Real Profit (with Sun Huang)
• Chain-in 2018, Lisbon Hacking Blockchain for Fun and Real Profit (with Sun Huang)
• Hack in Paris 2017, Paris 25 Techniques to Gather Threat Intel & Track Actors (with Sun Huang)
• Black Hat APAC 2017, Singapore 24 Techniques to Gather Threat Intel & Track Actors (with Sun Huang)
• HackFest 2017, Quebec Unveiling One of the World’s Biggest and Oldest Cybercrime Gangs (with Sun Huang)
• Hack.lu 2016, Luxembourg Unveiling the Attack Chain of Russian-Speaking Cybercriminals (with Sun Huang)
• SteelCon 2016, Sheffield, England Witness the Russian Attack: Live Demos of Their Steps, Tools, Techniques (with Sun Huang)
• Virus Bulletin 2016, Denver Unveiling the Attack Chain of Russian-Speaking Cybercriminals
• Troopers 2016, Heidelberg Russian Attack: Live Demos of Their Steps, Tools, Techniques (with Sun Huang)
• RSA Conference 2016, San Francisco Witness the Russian Attack: Live Demos of Their Steps, Tools, Techniques (with Sun Huang)

• RSA APAC & Japan Conference 2015, Singapore New Ways of Emerging APT Actors: India, South Africa, Nigeria, and Indonesia (with Sun Huang)

• RSA Conference 2015, San Francisco Bitcoin’s Future Threats: Expert’s Roundtable based on 150 Case Studies (with Sun Huang)
• DEF CON 2013, Las Vegas Drivesploit: Circumventing Both Automated AND Manual Drive-By-Download Detection (with Sun Huang)