Summary
Nick Nikiforakis is a cybersecurity researcher-turned-founder with 14 years of experience bridging academic rigor and practical defenses; he is Associate Professor at Stony Brook, leads the PragSec Lab, and in 2025 co-founded LinkSentry as CEO. His research on web security, privacy, DNS hardening, attack-surface reduction and deception has produced 70+ peer-reviewed papers cited over 4,000 times and earned NSF CAREER and ONR Young Investigator awards. Known for analyzing large online ecosystems—from file-hosting to remote JavaScript inclusions—he combines empirical measurement with deployable countermeasures against real-world web threats. Based in Brookhaven, NY, he brings both deep low-level protocol insight and a track record of translating academic findings into startup-grade security products.
14 years of coding experience
13 years of employment as a software developer
PhD Web security & privacy low-level security, PhD Web security & privacy low-level security at KU Leuven
MSc Distributed Systems, MSc Distributed Systems at University of Crete