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Pankaj Niroula

Pankaj Niroula

PhD Candidate in Computer Science

William & Mary

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Research Interests

Privacy-by-default systems design using confidential computing and applied cryptography.

About

I am a PhD candidate in Computer Science at William & Mary, specializing in systems security. I work with Prof. Stephen Herwig in the Extending Trust in Computing Lab (etclab). My research focuses on building systems that embed privacy guarantees by design, using confidential computing, applied cryptography, and distributed and networked systems to make privacy the default rather than an opt-in feature.

Publications

CODoH: Privacy-Preserving Caching for Oblivious DNS over HTTPS
Pankaj Niroula, Lily Gloudemans, Aashutosh Poudel, Collin MacDonald, Stephen Herwig
Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PoPETs) 2026
Paper | DOI | Artifact
Calypso: Fine-Grained Access Control for Zero-Trust Cloud Service Discovery
Pankaj Niroula, Peyton Boggs, Aashutosh Poudel, Stephen Herwig
31st ACM Symposium on Access Control Models and Technologies (SACMAT) 2026
Paper | ACM DL | Artifact
AccNimbus: Scalable Proofs of Data Possession for Cloud Storage
Collin MacDonald, Pankaj Niroula, Aashutosh Poudel, Stephen Herwig
14th International Workshop on Hardware and Architectural Support for Security and Privacy (HASP) 2025
Paper | ACM DL
Mazu: A Zero Trust Architecture for Service Mesh Control Planes
Aashutosh Poudel, Pankaj Niroula, Collin MacDonald, Lily Gloudemans, Stephen Herwig
European Workshop on Systems Security (EuroSec) 2025
Paper | ACM DL
Akeso: Bringing Post-Compromise Security to Cloud Storage
Lily Gloudemans, Pankaj Niroula, Aashutosh Poudel, Collin MacDonald, Stephen Herwig
Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PoPETs) 2025
Paper | Artifact

See my full publication list on Google Scholar.

Honors & Fellowships

COVES Policy Fellow — Summer 2026
Commonwealth of Virginia Engineering and Science (COVES) Fellowship, VASEM
Office of Delegate Bonita Anthony, Virginia House of Delegates
Authored a research memorandum on state enforcement of emerging-technology harms, with recommendations for the 2027 legislative session
VASEM Profile

Service

Paper Sub-Reviewer
  • Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) 2025
  • IEEE Secure Development Conference (SecDev) 2024
Artifact Evaluation Committee Reviewer
  • Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) 2027
  • USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Sec) 2025
  • ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2024
  • Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) 2024, 2023
Session Chair
  • ACM Symposium on Access Control Models and Technologies (SACMAT) 2026
CTF Organizer
  • TribeCTF — Organizing Committee Member, annual CTF at William & Mary (2024, 2025, 2026)
University Service
  • President, Computer Science Graduate Student Association (CSGSA), March 2024 – present
  • School Representative, International Student Advisory Board, William & Mary, August 2025 – present
  • Department Representative for Computer Science, Graduate Student Association, August 2023 – May 2024