A research paper from Georgia Tech revealing new Android security vulnerabilities recently earned a prestigious award at the 38th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy – a top-tier academic conference – held May 22-24 in San Jose, Calif.

Although all 60 papers accepted by the conference were considered for the recognition, Cloak and Dagger: From Two Permissions to Complete Control of the UI Feedback Loop was singled out as the event’s 2017 distinguished practical paper.

The paper’s lead author is Yanick Fratantonio, a Georgia Tech Ph.D. summer intern from the University of California Santa Barbara. Co-authors include Georgia Tech School of Computer Science Ph.D. student Chenxiong Qian, research scientist Simon Chung, and Wenke Lee, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science and co-director of the Institute for Information Security & Privacy (IISP).

“This award, which is given by our fellow researchers in security and privacy, underscores the important work IISP is doing to identify, resolve, and prevent real-world security risks that can adversely impact millions of people,” said Lee.

Along with earning industry accolades, the Georgia Tech paper detailing previously unknown threats to Android users has also attracted media attention. Coverage includes bylined articles published by Newsweek, Mashable, Engadget, and the International Business Times.

The paper was one of four from Georgia Tech authors accepted to the conference.

According to independent research by Georgia Tech alumnus Guofei Gu, a professor at Texas A&M University, the IEE Security and Privacy Symposium has one of the lowest acceptance rates of peer-reviewed work with just 13.3 percent of all submissions being accepted for presentation in 2016.