Tong Zhu (祝童)

JD.com, Inc. Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, Beijing, China Lab: Network Security and Privacy Protection (NSEC) Lab, SJTU Email 1: tongzhu AT sjtu.edu.cn Email 2 (Preferred/常用邮箱): tong.zh AT foxmail.com [CV_in_English] [中文简历]

Short Bios

I am Tong Zhu, a member of JD.com's Tech Genius Team (TGT Program), and currently a Security Researcher in the Information Security Department of JD.com. I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, advised by Professor Haojin Zhu. Previously, I received my bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Technology from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in June 2019, where I was advised by Professor Ting Chen. My current research focuses on mobile security and privacy protection, specifically advertising anti-fraud based on dynamic and static analysis techniques and LLM-driven general advertising anti-fraud mechanisms. I have published several papers in top international conferences and journals, including ACM CCS ('21, '24) (CCF-A), USENIX Security '23 (CCF-A), ACM/IEEE TON '25 (CCF-A), IEEE ICDCS (CCF-B), DFRWS (CCF-C), and Digital Investigation (SCI), among others. From April 2019 to January 2020, I served as an Application Security Research Intern at QiAnXin Pangu Lab, responsible for researching mobile ad click fraud. I discovered and reported multiple medium- and high-risk vulnerabilities. I also serve as a regular reviewer for academic journals including PPNA (SCI). I was selected for JD.com's Tech Genius Team/Doctoral Management Trainee (TGT/DMT) Program and the Yicheng Outstanding Talent Program, a district-level talent program launched by Beijing E-Town (Yizhuang). I have also been appointed as an Advisory Expert of the Brand Marketing Ecosystem Security Service Center of the China Advertising Association and an IAB China Expert. I was awarded the sole Gold Award (Academic Category) of the 2024 China Advertising Great Wall Award (a national-level award), the ACM CCS'24 Student Travel Grant, UESTC People's Special-Class, First-Class, and Second-Class Scholarships, the title of Outstanding Graduate of UESTC, and First Prize in the JD.com 2025 Hackathon, among others.

Research Interest

My research interests focus on identifying and addressing new security threats in mobile systems. I am especially interested in the detection of mobile advertising fraud. I am interested in a set of novel techniques and projects that can improve the security and privacy of mobile systems and have a real-world impact. My research mainly focuses on:
• Static / dynamic analysis on mobile systems.
  
• LLM-driven general advertising anti-fraud mechanisms.
  
• Digital forensics.
  

Education

• Ph.D., computer science and Engineering, 2019.09 - 2024.12
  Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
  Advisor: Professor Haojin Zhu
  Area of Study: Mobile Security and Privacy
• B.S., computer science and Engineering, 2015.09 - 2019.06
  University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
  Advisor: Professor Ting Chen
  Class Rank: Top 5% (GPA: 3.8/4)

Work Experience

• Security Researcher, Information Security Department, JD.com, 2025.02 - Present
  Head of General Advertising Anti-Fraud Algorithm Group
  Research Area: General Advertising Anti-Fraud Algorithms
• Application Security Research Intern, QiAnXin Pangu Lab, 2019.04 - 2020.01
  Research Area: Mobile Ad Click Fraud

Honors and Awards

• Yicheng Outstanding Talent, Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, Apr. 2026
  
• Appointed as an IAB China Expert, Jan. 2025
  
• First Prize, JD.com 2025 Hackathon (3/683), Oct. 2025
  
• JD.com Tech Genius Team/Doctoral Management Trainee (TGT/DMT) Program, Feb. 2025
  
• Sole Gold Award, 2024 China Advertising Great Wall Award (Academic Category), Dec. 2024
  
• Appointed as an Advisory Expert, Brand Marketing Ecosystem Security Service Center, China Advertising Association, Sep. 2024
  
• ACM CCS 2024 Student Travel Grant, Sep. 2024
  
• Outstanding Graduate of UESTC, Jun. 2019
  
• UESTC People's Special-Class Scholarship (Top 3%), Dec. 2018
  
• Level A Certificate for Comprehensive Quality of College Students in Sichuan Province, Oct. 2018
  
• UESTC People's Second-Class Scholarship, Dec. 2017
  
• Second Prize (Sichuan Provincial Division), National Mathematical Modeling Contest, Aug. 2017
  
• Outstanding Communist Youth League Cadre of UESTC, May 2017
  
• UESTC People's First-Class Scholarship, Dec. 2016
  

Publications

Journal Papers

• Tong Zhu, Zhen Huang, Lu Zhou, Guoxing Chen, Yan Meng, and Haojin Zhu. Collaborative Ad Fraud Detection in Ad Networks[J]. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 2025 (IEEE/ACM TON, CCF-A).
• Xiaodong Lin, Ting Chen, Tong Zhu, Kun Yang, Fengguo Wei. Automated forensic analysis of mobile applications on Android devices[J]. Digital Investigation, 2018. 26: p. S59-S66. (The special issue of the DFRWS'18. First student author.)

Conference Papers

• Tong Zhu, Chaofan Shou, Zhen Huang, Guoxing Chen, Xiaokuan Zhang, Yan Meng, Shuang Hao, Haojin Zhu. Unveiling Collusion-Based Ad Attribution Laundering Fraud: Detection, Analysis, and Security Implications[C]. ACM 31st Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS'24, CCF-A). ACM, 2024.
• Lu Zhou, Chengyongxiao Wei, Tong Zhu, Guoxing Chen, Xiaokuan Zhang, Suguo Du, Hui Cao, Haojin Zhu. POLICYCOMP: Counterpart Comparison of Privacy Policies Uncovers Overbroad Personal Data Collection Practices[C]. The 32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security'23, CCF-A). USENIX, 2023.
• Tong Zhu, Yan Meng, Haotian Hu, Xiaokuan Zhang, Minhui Xue, Haojin Zhu. Dissecting Click Fraud Autonomy in the Wild[C]. ACM 28th Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS'21, CCF-A). ACM, 2021.
• Ting Chen, Zihao Li, Yufei Zhang, Xiapu Luo, Ang Chen, Kun Yang, Bin Hu, Tong Zhu, Shifang Deng, Teng Hu, Jiachi Chen, Xiaosong Zhang. Dataether: Data exploration framework for ethereum[C]. IEEE 39th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS'19, CCF-B). IEEE, 2019, pp.1369-1380.
• Xiaodong Lin, Ting Chen, Tong Zhu, Kun Yang, Fengguo Wei. Automated forensic analysis of mobile applications on Android devices[C]. Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS'18, CCF-C). Elsevier, 2018.

Patent

• Haojin Zhu, Tong Zhu, Yan Meng. 2022. Mobile advertising click fraud detection method, system, and terminal based on static analysis. CN (National Invention Patent) CN113191809B, filed May 7, 2021, and issued August 9, 2022. (Authorized)
• Haojin Zhu, Tong Zhu, Yan Meng, Guoxing Chen. 2024. Collusion-based advertising attribution laundering fraud detection method, system, and terminal based on static analysis. CN (National Invention Patent) 2024. (Pending)

Professional Services

• Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications (PPNA): Reviewer
  

Teaching Assistant

• Network Security, Spring 2021
  

Other Information

Discovered Vulnerabilities

• CNVD-2020-31071, High
• CNVD-2020-31516, Medium
• CNVD-2020-31517, Medium