index.markdown

layout	title
default	About Me

About me

I am a cybersecurity researcher from Patagonia, Argentina, with over a decade of experience in threat intelligence, malware traffic analysis, and data-driven security. I work as a senior researcher and co-director of the Stratosphere Research Laboratory at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where I also teach the Introduction to Security course, both in a physical class and as a large-scale MOOC. I have presented at international conferences, including Black Hat, EkoParty, Botconf, and Virus Bulletin, and I serve on review boards for Black Hat and academic events. I am the co-founder of MatesLab hackerspace in Argentina and the Independent Fund for Women in Tech. I deliver intensive, hands-on training in network traffic and malware analysis, drawing on over 18,000 hours of real-world traffic investigation experience. Since 2025, I have been pursuing a PhD in Computer Science and AI at the Czech Technical University in Prague while completing a master's degree in Intelligence and Security Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.

Advising

• 2023-2024
  Master Thesis Co-Supervisor

  Seguridad de un satélite en órbita: Detección de compromiso mediante técnicas de integridad. Juan Ignacio Bousquet. UBA, Argentina
• 2022-2023
  Master Thesis Supervisor Specialist

  A Network Dataset of Normal, Malware, Attack and Background Traffic on a Real Network. Štěpán Bendl. FEE, CTU in Prague, Czech Republic
• 2019-2020
  Master Thesis Supervisor Specialist

  The first comprehensive report on the state of the security of mobile phones of civil society. Jakub Čech. FEE, CTU in Prague, Czech Republic

Teaching

• Fall 2020-ongoing
  Teaching Assistant --- Introduction to Computer Security (in English)

  Open Informatics Master Program, CTU in Prague

Trainings

• 2018-ongoing
  BlackHat (USA, Asia, Europe)

  Trainer --- Advanced Malware Traffic Analysis (various editions)
• 2021
  NorthSec

  Trainer --- Getting Your Hands Dirty: Understanding & Hunting Down Malware Attacks in Your Network
• 2019
  Ekoparty

  Trainer --- Getting Your Hands Dirty: Understanding & Hunting Down Malware Attacks in Your Network
• 2019
  OWASP Czech Republic

  Trainer --- Getting Your Hands Dirty: IoT Botnet Analysis
• 2019
  Internet Freedom Festival

  Trainer --- Emergency VPN: Analyzing mobile network traffic to detect digital threats
• 2019
  Troopers

  Trainer --- Machine Learning for Network Security and Malware Detection
• 2018
  HackLu

  Trainer --- Getting Your Hands Dirty: How to Analyze the Behavior of Malware Traffic and Web Connections
• 2018
  Ekoparty

  Trainer --- Advanced Malware Attacks In Your Network
• 2016
  Botconf

  Trainer --- Getting your hands dirty: How to Analyze the Behavior of Malware Traffic and Web Connections

Contributions

• Civilsphere AI VPN, Core researcher and developer, 2021-2023, AIC, FEL, CTU in Prague, Czech Republic
• Slips, supporter, 2018-2024, AIC, FEL, CTU in Prague, Czech Republic

Awards & Scholarships

• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Winter Semester 2023/2024, AI Center, FEE, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
• Career Trajectory Award 2021, Ekoparty Security Conference, Argentina
• Information Security Undergraduate Scholarship 2011, (ISC)² Foundation, United States
• Full University Scholarship 2010-2013, FASTA University, Argentina
• Student scholarship 2010-2011, Chubut Province's Department of Scholarships and Compensation Policies, Argentina
• Partial University Scholarship 2007-2009, FASTA University, Argentina
• Special Mention 2002, Instituto Balseiro, Argentina
• Best Technological Project Idea 1999, Ministry of Education of Chubut Province, Argentina

Initiatives

• Co-founder of the Independent Fund for Women in Tech, a global initiative to foster the participation of women in cybersecurity conferences, in 2018.
• Co-founder of the MatesLab hackerspace in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2009.

Review Boards

• BlackHat Arsenal Review Board, 2024-Ongoing
• BlackHat Trainings Review Board, 2022-2025
• Workshop on Attackers and Cyber-Crime Operations Program Committee, IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2021-2025
• Ekoparty Security Conference Review Board, 2018-2025
• BlackHat Briefings EU Review Board, 2018

Publications

Peer-reviewed Conferences and Journals

• VelLMes: A high-interaction AI-based deception framework. In 4th Workshop on Active Defense and Deception (AD&D) co-located with the 10th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&PW). Sladić, M., Valeros, V., Catania, C., & Garcia, S. (2025).
• DeepRed: A Deep Learning-Powered Command and Control Framework for Multi-Stage Red Teaming against ML-based Network Intrusion Detection Systems. In Proceedings of the 19th USENIX Conference on Offensive Technologies (WOOT '25). Hajizadeh, M., Golchin, P., Nowroozi, E., Rigaki, M., Valeros, V., García, S., Conti, M., & Bauschert, T. (2025).
• CTU Hornet 65 Niner: A network dataset of geographically distributed low-interaction honeypots. Data in Brief, 111261. Valeros, V., & Garcia, S. (2024).
• Towards Better Understanding of Cybercrime: The Role of Fine-Tuned LLMs in Translation. In 2024 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW). Valeros, V., Širokova, A., Catania, C., & Garcia, S. (2024).
• LLM in the Shell: Generative Honeypots. In 2024 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW). Sladić, M., Valeros, V., Catania, C., & Garcia, S. (2024).
• Hornet 40: network dataset of geographically placed honeypots. Data in Brief, 107795. Valeros, V., & Garcia, S. (2022).
• Growth and commoditization of remote access trojans. In 2020 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) (pp. 454-462). IEEE. Valeros, V., & Garcia, S. (2020, September).
• Machete: Dissecting the Operations of a Cyber Espionage Group in Latin America. In 2019 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) (pp. 464-473). IEEE. Valeros, V., Rigaki, M., & Garcia, S. (2019, June).
• An overview of the WCMS brute-forcing malware landscape. The Journal on Cybercrime & Digital Investigations, 3(1), 20-29. Shirokova, A., & Valeros, V. (2017).
• Make it count: an analysis of a brute-forcing botnet. The Journal on Cybercrime & Digital Investigations, 1(1). Valeros, V. (2016).
• Exploit kit website detection using http proxy logs. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Network, Communication and Computing (pp. 120-125). Nikolaev, I., Grill, M., & Valeros, V. (2016).
• Detecting DGA malware using NetFlow. In 2015 IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM) (pp. 1304-1309). IEEE. Grill, M., Nikolaev, I., Valeros, V., & Rehak, M. (2015).
• Educarse y divertirse, la Universidad y el Hackspace. V Congreso de Tecnología en Educación y Educación en Tecnología. V. Valeros, S. Garcia (2010).
• De la universidad al hacklab, respetar y divertirse en la educación. World Engineering Congress. V. Valeros, S. Garcia (2010).

Reports

• ENISA Threat Landscape for DoS Attacks, ENISA, 2023
• ENISA Threat Landscape for Ransomware Attacks, ENISA, 2022
• ENISA Threat Landscape for Supply Chain Attacks, ENISA, 2021
• ENISA Report - Encrypted Traffic Analysis, ENISA, 2019

Conferences

• ARACNE: A Multi-Agent LLM Framework for Comprehensive Autonomous Linux Shell Security Testing, Ekoparty (Argentina), 2025
• Innovating Cybersecurity Education through Hands-On Learning, Democratized Knowledge, and Safe Experimentation, 1st Teaching Europe Conference (Virtual), 2024
• AI VPN: A Free-Software AI-Powered Network Forensics Tool, BlackHat Asia Arsenal (Virtual), 2024
• AI VPN: A Free-Software AI-Powered Network Forensics Tool, BlackHat Europe Arsenal (UK), 2023
• Four Key Problems in OSINT for Cyber Threat Intelligence, ENISA CTI (Greece), 2023
• AI VPN: A Free-Software AI-Powered Network Forensics Tool, DIMVA Arsenal (Germany), 2023
• Un análisis global de la privacidad en tráfico celular y cómo estás en riesgo de vigilancia, Ekoparty (Argentina), 2022
• Spy vs. Spy: A Modern Study Of Microphone Bugs Operation And Detection, BSides BUD (Hungary), 2018
• Spy vs. Spy: A Modern Study Of Microphone Bugs Operation And Detection, 34C3 (Germany), 2017
• Knock Knock... Who's there? admin admin, Get In! An Overview of the CMS Brute-Forcing Malware Landscape, Botconf (France), 2017
• América Latina, blanco de un grupo avanzado de cyber espionaje, TandilSec (Argentina), 2017
• Panel: Mujeres en Tecnología y Ciencia, UNICEN (Argentina), 2017
• Five days in the life of a CMS brute forcing malware, BSides Vienna (Austria), 2017
• An overview of the CMS brute-forcing malware landscape, BruCON (Belgium), 2017
• A new twist on the APT targeting Latin America, GoSec (Canada), 2017
• Spy vs. Spy: A modern study of microphone bugs operation and detection, Hack in the Box (Singapore), 2017
• Are You The Lucky One? Sometimes Luck Can Bring You Malware, Cisco Blogs, 2017
• The Future of Cybersecurity Needs You: Here is Why, PyData Berlin (Germany), 2017
• Threat Hunting En Masse: The 9 Circles of Evil, Copenhagen CyberCrime Conference (Denmark), 2017
• Hunting Them All, Troopers (Germany), 2017
• Closing One Learning Loop: Using Decision Forests to Detect Advanced Threats, Cisco Blogs, 2017
• In plain sight: Credential and data stealing adware, Cisco Blogs, 2016
• Getting your hands dirty: How to Analyze the Behavior of Malware Traffic and Web Connections, Botconf (France), 2016
• 50 Thousand Needles in 5 Million Haystacks: Understanding Old Malware Tricks to Find New Malware Families, BlackHat EU (UK), 2016
• DNS Changer Lighting-talk, Secure PL (Poland), 2016
• Trickeries of a giant: a long term study on malicious adware networks, Secure PL (Poland), 2016
• Network Analysis for Threat Intelligence Workshop, Czech Technical University (Czech Republic), 2016
• Piecing Together Malicious Behavior in Encrypted Traffic, Cisco Blogs, 2016
• Cognitive Threat Analytics: Turn Your Proxy Into Security Device, Cisco Blogs, 2016
• Threat Hunting En Masse: Challenges And Discoveries, Security Automation World (France), 2016
• Adware landscape: what you didn't want to hear, University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg), 2016
• The Dark Side of Adware: Malware and Data Exfiltration, BSides Tel Aviv (Israel), 2016
• Adware's new upsell: malware, BSides Calgary (Canada), 2016
• DNSChanger Outbreak Linked to Adware Install Base, Cisco Blogs, 2016
• Insights of a brute-forcing botnet, Security Session (Czech Republic) , 2015
• Make It Count: an Analysis of a Brute-forcing Botnet, Botconf (France), 2015
• Angler for Beginners in 34 Seconds, Cisco Blogs, 2015
• Bad Browser Plug-ins Gone Wild: Malvertising, Data Exfiltration, and Malware, Oh my!, Cisco Blogs, 2015
• How bluetooth may jeopardize your privacy. An analysis of people behavioral patterns in the street, DeepSec (Austria), 2014
• Uncovering your trails Privacy issues of bluetooth devices, Ekoparty (Argentina), 2013
• Análisis de anomalías en protocolos web para la detección de ataques, FASTA University, 2012

Datasets

• Valeros, V., & Sebastian, G. (2024). CTU Hornet 65 Niner: A Network Dataset of Geographically Distributed Low-Interaction Honeypots (Version 1) [Data set]. Mendeley Data. https://doi.org/10.17632/nt4p9zsv5k.1
• Valeros, V., & Shirokova, A. (2024). CTU-Hacktivist-RU_EN-1: A Dataset with Russian English Translation, Zenodo, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.10782757
• Bendl, Š., Valeros, V., & Garcia, S. (2023). CTU-SME-11: a labeled dataset with real benign and malicious network traffic mimicking a small medium-size enterprise environment, Zenodo, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7958259
• García, Sebastián; Čejka, Tomáš; Valeros, Veronica (2021), "Dataset of DNS over HTTPS (DoH) Internet Servers", Mendeley Data, V2, doi: 10.17632/ny4m53g6bw.2
• Valeros, Veronica; Garcia, Sebastian (2021), "Dataset of 50 Online Services Advertised in the Internet Marketing Forum searchengines.guru", Mendeley Data, V2, doi: 10.17632/48gyrs6y37.2
• Valeros, Veronica (2021), "Hornet 40: Network Dataset of Geographically Placed Honeypots", Mendeley Data, V3, doi: 10.17632/tcfzkbpw46.3
• Valeros, Veronica (2021), "Hornet 15: Network Dataset of Geographically Placed Honeypots", Mendeley Data, V2, doi: 10.17632/rry7bhc2f2.2
• Valeros, Veronica (2021), "Hornet 7: Network Dataset of Geographically Placed Honeypots", Mendeley Data, V3, doi: 10.17632/w6yskg3ffy.3