PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Giovanni Vigna

Also known as zanardi, z4n4rd1

Giovanni Vigna is a computer security researcher at UC Santa Barbara who directs ACTION, an NSF AI institute that builds intelligent agents for cyber defense. After a Ph.D. at Politecnico di Milano in 1998, he worked on STAT-based intrusion detection at UCSB, began running the iCTF hacking contest in 2003 and founded the Shellphish hacking group. In 2010 he co-founded the anti-malware company Lastline, which VMware acquired in 2020, and the ACM named him a Fellow in 2019. Shellphish placed third at DARPA's 2016 Cyber Grand Challenge with its autonomous system Mechanical Phish, and in 2025 it reached the AIxCC final at DEF CON 33 with the agent-based ARTIPHISHELL. He is a Distinguished Professor of computer science at UCSB and leads an advanced threat prevention group at Broadcom.

Timeline

  1. 1994–1999

    Milan degrees and NetSTAT

    He earns an M.S. with honors in 1994 and a Ph.D. in 1998 from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. In January 1999, he and Richard A. Kemmerer publish NetSTAT, a network-based intrusion detection system, in the Journal of Computer Security.

  2. 2002–2003

    STAT and the iCTF

    In 2002, he, Richard Kemmerer and Kevin Almeroth develop a Department of Defense-funded intrusion detection system based on Kemmerer's State Transition Analysis Technique (STAT), which models attacks as a series of steps. As an assistant professor of computer science at UCSB, he serves as program chair of the RAID 2003 intrusion detection symposium. He begins running iCTF, a yearly educational Capture The Flag hacking contest, in 2003.

  3. 2005–2016

    Shellphish and Mechanical Phish

    He founds the Shellphish hacking group, formed at UCSB in 2005, which goes on to play in more DEF CON CTF competitions than any other group. With him as faculty advisor, the team's autonomous system Mechanical Phish places third at DARPA's 2016 Cyber Grand Challenge, winning $750,000 on top of $750,000 for qualifying. In 2016, he also receives Google's Security, Privacy and Anti-abuse award for his work against malware and cybercrime.

  4. 2010–2020

    Co-founding Lastline

    In 2010, he co-founds the anti-malware company Lastline with Engin Kirda of Northeastern University and UCSB colleague Christopher Kruegel, and he serves as its CTO. VMware acquires Lastline in June 2020.

  5. 2019

    An ACM Fellowship

    The ACM names him a 2019 Fellow for seminal contributions to mobile code, intrusion detection, malware detection and vulnerability analysis. By 2019, he directs UCSB's Center for CyberSecurity, and his open-source angr binary analysis system has been downloaded more than 25,000 times from GitHub.

  6. 2023

    Heading the ACTION Institute

    In May 2023, the NSF announces the AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation (ACTION), one of seven new AI Research Institutes, with UCSB as lead and him at the head of the $20 million, five-year project. The institute develops intelligent agents that combine knowledge representation, logic reasoning and learning to identify and respond to breaches. UCSB secures $5.3 million in federal grant money for this AI and cybersecurity research in 2023.

  7. 2025

    ARTIPHISHELL at DARPA's AIxCC

    In June 2025, Shellphish, guided by him and Christopher Kruegel, submits ARTIPHISHELL, an agent-based cyber reasoning system, to the final round of DARPA's AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC). Built on ACTION research with an ensemble of over 60 specialized agents, the system debuts at DEF CON 33 as one of seven finalists.

  8. As of October 2026

    Distinguished Professor at UCSB

    He is a Distinguished Professor in UCSB's Department of Computer Science and directs the ACTION Institute. After Broadcom acquires VMware in November 2023, he leads an advanced threat prevention group in Broadcom's ANS business unit.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Giovanni Vigna yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. SecLab - Giovanni Vigna seclab.cs.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. SecLab - NetSTAT: A Network-based Intrusion Detection System seclab.cs.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Researchers Develop Anti-Intrusion System | The Daily Nexus dailynexus.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Giovanni Vigna | Journal of Information Warfare jinfowar.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Giovanni Vigna::Bio sites.cs.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Shellphish Submits ARTIPHISHELL to the Final Round of the DARPA AI Cyber Competition engineering.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Cyber-Gladiators | The Current news.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. A Prestigious Recognition | The Current news.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. Lastline – UC Santa Barbara Office of Technology & Industry Alliances tia.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  10. NSF supports new AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and OperatioN | Siebel School of Computing and Data Science | Illinois siebelschool.illinois.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  11. UCSB awarded $5.3 million to spearhead AI and cybersecurity research kcbx.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  12. ACTION AI Institute Research Powers Team Shellphish to Landmark Success at DEF CON 33 | The ACTION Institute action.ucsb.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  13. Science Visit with Giovanni Vigna | BIML berryvilleiml.com. Checked 19 October 2026.