Mohammed ElHajj

Faculty of computer studies

Phone:

Office: Badaro - Lebanon

Dr. Mohammed El-Hajj is a dedicated researcher and educator with a focus on cybersecurity, IoT, and cryptographic systems. Currently serving as an Associate Researcher at the Arab Open University, he brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles, including Assistant Professor at the University of Twente and Lecturer at Jacobs University Bremen.

Dr. El-Hajj's academic journey includes a Ph.D. in IoT Security from Saint Joseph University (USJ), earned with the highest honors, and a Master’s in Web Development from Kingston University, London. His research contributions have been widely recognized, with publications in high-impact journals and conferences, covering topics such as lightweight cryptographic algorithms, privacy-preserving authentication, and digital twins for enhancing IoT security.

With a passion for mentoring, Dr. El-Hajj has supervised numerous Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. theses, fostering innovation and critical thinking in his students. He has also led initiatives in program development, curriculum design, and interdisciplinary projects, including collaborations with the Dutch Tax Authority and the police to advance post-quantum cryptography.

In addition to his academic roles, Dr. El-Hajj is a skilled technical writer and has contributed to software documentation and user training materials for complex systems. His vision is to inspire future generations to excel in computer science while advancing global cybersecurity frameworks.

Arab Open University (2024 – Ongoing)

Bachelor and Master's courses in Cybersecurity and Computer Science.
Supervising Bachelor projects and Master theses.

University of Twente (2021 – 2024)

Bachelor's and Master's courses in Cybersecurity.
Supervising Bachelor projects and Master theses.
Co-supervising Ph.D. students.
Organizing new courses for Computer Science (CS) and Business Information Technology (BIT) majors.

Jacobs University Bremen (2020 – Ongoing)

Teaching Bachelor's and Master's courses in Computer Science (online).
Supervising Bachelor's theses.
Teaching "Computer Networks" course (external lecturer).

University of Sciences and Arts in Lebanon (USAL) (2014 – 2021)

Various Computer Science courses, including:
- Programming (Introduction, Intermediate, Advanced Java).
- Software Engineering.
- Computer Architecture and Organization.
- Web Development and Mobile Application Development (Android).
- Cloud Computing, CCNA (1-4), and CCNA Security.
- Advanced Database and Non-Relational Databases.
- Senior Projects.

Lebanese International University (LIU) (2009 – 2017)

Courses taught include:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI).
- Visual Basic for Business.
- Database Management Systems (Oracle, SQL Server).
- Web Development (Client-side, Server-side).
- Operating Systems and OS Labs (Unix).
- Mobile Application Development and Senior Projects.

Arab Open University (2008 – 2017)

Teaching Computer Science courses such as:
- Software Engineering, Data Structures, and Operating Systems.
- Programming (Python, Java, JavaScript).
- Advanced Java (Putting Java to Work).
- Senior Projects.

Professional Experience

Associate Professor – Arab Open University (2024 – Present)

Teaching Bachelor’s and Master’s courses in Cybersecurity and Computer Science.
Supervising Bachelor’s projects and Master’s theses.
Co-supervising Ph.D. students.

Assistant Professor – University of Twente (2021 – 2024)

Teaching Bachelor’s and Master’s courses in Cybersecurity.
Supervising Bachelor’s projects, Master’s theses, and Ph.D. students.
Organizing new courses for Computer Science (CS) and Business Information Technology (BIT) majors.
Member of the program committee for Computer Science.
Collaborating with the Dutch Tax Authority and police on methods and tools for transitioning to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).
Engaged in a project focusing on the lifecycle security of IT/OT systems.

Lecturer – Jacobs University Bremen (2020 – Present)

Teaching Bachelor’s and Master’s courses in Computer Science (online).
Supervising Bachelor’s theses.

Program Coordinator – University of Sciences and Arts in Lebanon (USAL) (2014 – 2021)

Coordinating the Computer Science Department and academic programs.
Teaching a variety of Computer Science courses.
Providing administrative and marketing support for academic programs.
Supervising academic records and preparing training and educational materials.
Growing the department’s student count from 20 to 150.

Technical Writer – Vanrise Solutions (2018 – 2022)

Preparing, reviewing, and maintaining technical documentation for software systems.
Coordinating technical documentation to meet release deadlines.
Designing templates for technical reports and specifications.

Lecturer – Lebanese International University (LIU) (2009 – 2017)

Teaching Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence courses.
Supervising final-year projects and coordinating academic courses.

Lecturer – Arab Open University (2008 – 2017)

Teaching various courses in Computer Science and Software Engineering.

Journal:

1-El-Hajj, M., Fadlallah, A., Chamoun, M. and Serhrouchni, A., 2019. A survey of internet of things (IoT) authentication schemes. Sensors, 19(5), p.1141.

2-El-Hajj, M., Fadlallah, A., Chamoun, M. and Serhrouchni, A., 2021. A taxonomy of PUF Schemes with a novel Arbiter-based PUF resisting machine learning attacks. Computer Networks, 194, p.108133.

3-Schrijver, G., Sarmah, D.K. and El-Hajj, M., 2024. Automobile Insurance Fraud Detection Using Data Mining: A Systematic Literature Review. Intelligent Systems with Applications, p.200340.

4-El‐Hajj, M., Itäpelto, T. and Gebremariam, T., 2024. Systematic literature review: Digital twins' role in enhancing security for Industry 4.0 applications. Security and Privacy, p.e396.

5-El-Hajj, M., 2024. Leveraging digital twins and intrusion detection systems for enhanced security in IoT-based smart city infrastructures. Electronics, 13(19), p.3941.

6-Oude Roelink, B., El‐Hajj, M. and Sarmah, D., 2024. Systematic review: Comparing zk‐SNARK, zk‐STARK, and bulletproof protocols for privacy‐preserving authentication. Security and Privacy, 7(5), p.e401.

7-El-Hajj, Mohammed, and Teklit Haftu Gebremariam. "Enhancing Resilience in Digital Twins: ASCON-Based Security Solutions for Industry 4.0." Network 4.3 (2024): 260-294.

8-El-Hajj, M. and Beune, P., 2024. Decentralized Zone-Based PKI: A Lightweight Security Framework for IoT Ecosystems. Information, 15(6), p.304.

9-Elhajj, M. and Mulder, P., 2023. A comparative analysis of the computation cost and energy consumption of relevant curves of ecc presented in literature. International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering Research, 3(1), pp.1-6.

10-El-Hajj, M. and Beune, P., 2024. Lightweight public key infrastructure for the Internet of Things: A systematic literature review. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, p.100670.

11-Constantinescu, E.M., El-Hajj, M. and Mariot, L., 2025. Exploring smooth number-based MAC algorithms for secure communication in IoT devices: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Information Security, 24(1), pp.1-43.

12-El-Hajj, M. and Pavlova, M., 2024. Predictive Modeling of Customer Response to Marketing Campaigns. Electronics, 13(19), p.3953.

13-El-Hajj, M. and Mirza, Z.A., 2024. Protecting Small and Medium Enterprises: A Specialized Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Framework and Tool. Electronics, 13(19), p.3910.

14-El-Hajj, M. and Oude Roelink, B., 2024. Evaluating the Efficiency of zk-SNARK, zk-STARK, and Bulletproof in Real-World Scenarios: A Benchmark Study. Information, 15(8), p.463.

15-Rus, A.C., El-Hajj, M. and Sarmah, D.K., 2024. NAISS: A reverse proxy approach to mitigate MageCart's e-skimmers in e-commerce. Computers & Security, 140, p.103797.

16-El-hajj, M., Mousawi, H., & Fadlallah, A. (2023). Analysis of Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithms on IoT Hardware Platform. Future Internet, 15(2), 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15020054

17-El-Hajj, M., 2024. Leveraging digital twins and intrusion detection systems for enhanced security in IoT-based smart city infrastructures. Electronics, 13(19), p.3941.

18-Constantinescu, E.M., El-Hajj, M. and Mariot, L., 2025. Exploring smooth number-based MAC algorithms for secure communication in IoT devices: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Information Security, 24(1), pp.1-43.

19-El-Hajj, M., 2025. Enhancing Communication Networks in the New Era with Artificial Intelligence: Techniques, Applications, and Future Directions. Network, 5(1), p.1.

20-El-Hajj, M., 2024, December. Cybersecurity and Privacy Challenges in Extended Reality: Threats, Solutions, and Risk Mitigation Strategies. In Virtual Worlds (Vol. 4, No. 1, p. 1). MDPI.

Conferences:

1-El-Hajj, M., Chamoun, M., Fadlallah, A. and Serhrouchni, A., 2017, October. Analysis of authentication techniques in Internet of Things (IoT). In 2017 1st Cyber Security in Networking Conference (CSNet) (pp. 1-3). IEEE.

2-El-Haii, M., Chamoun, M., Fadlallah, A. and Serhrouchni, A., 2018, October. Analysis of cryptographic algorithms on iot hardware platforms. In 2018 2nd Cyber Security in Networking Conference (CSNet) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

3-El-Hajj, M., Chamoun, M., Fadlallah, A. and Serhrouchni, A., 2017, December. Taxonomy of authentication techniques in Internet of Things (IoT). In 2017 IEEE 15th Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD) (pp. 67-71). IEEE.

4-El-Hajj, M. and Fadlallah, A., 2022, November. Analysis of Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithms on IoT Hardware Platforms. In 2022 32nd International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (ITNAC) (pp. 121-126). IEEE.

5-El-Hajj, M., Fadlallah, A., Chamoun, M. and Serhrouchni, A., 2019, October. Ethereum for secure authentication of iot using pre-shared keys (psks). In 2019 International Conference on Wireless Networks and Mobile Communications (WINCOM)(pp. 1-7). IEEE.

6-Elhajj, M., Jradi, H., Chamoun, M. and Fadlallah, A., 2022, June. Lasii: Lightweight authentication scheme using iota in iot platforms. In 2022 20th Mediterranean Communication and Computer Networking Conference (MedComNet) (pp. 74-83). IEEE.

7-Fneish, Z.A.A.M., El-Hajj, M. and Samrouth, K., 2023, May. Survey on iot multi-factor authentication protocols: A systematic literature review. In 2023 11th International Symposium on Digital Forensics and Security (ISDFS) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

8-van der Wal, E.W. and El-Hajj, M., 2022, December. Securing networks of iot devices with digital twins and automated adversary emulation. In 2022 26th International Computer Science and Engineering Conference (ICSEC) (pp. 241-246). IEEE.

9-El-Hajj, M., Fadlallah, A., Chamoun, M. and Serhrouchni, A., 2020, January. Secure PUF: Physically unclonable function based on arbiter with enhanced resistance against machine learning (ML) attacks. In SEIA’2019 Conference Proceedings, Lulu. com (p. 216).

10-Garalov, T. and Elhajj, M., 2023, October. Enhancing IoT Security: Design and Evaluation of a Raspberry Pi-Based Intrusion Detection System. In 2023 International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications (ISNCC) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

11-täpelto, T.,Elhajj, M, et. 2023, August. Digital Twin Enhanced Critical Infrastructure Life Cycle Security. In 2023 IEEE Smart World Congress (SWC) (pp. 1-3). IEEE.

12- El-hajj, M. and Hahn, F., 2023, February. Security Aspects of Digital Twins in IoT. In 9th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy, ICISSP 2023.

13-Rus, C., Sarmah, D.K. and El-Hajj, M., 2023. Defeating MageCart Attacks in a NAISS Way. In SECRYPT (pp. 691-697).

14-Pavlov, V and El-hajj, M ., 2022. Security aspects of digital twins in IoT platform (Master's thesis, University of Twente).

15-Ahmad, K., Ramadan, H., Elhajj, M. and Hamieh, J., 2018. Performance analysis and comparison of detecting Dos attacks in Iot using machine learning, deep learning and data mining: a Survey. In 13th IEEE International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, ICITST 2018.

16-Elhajj, M. and Mulder, P., 2023. A comparative analysis of the computation cost and energy consumption of relevant curves of ECC presented in literature. International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering Research, 3(1), pp.1-6.

17-Drîngă, B. and Elhajj, M., 2023, November. Performance and Security Analysis of Privacy-Preserved IoT Applications. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Communication, Networks and Satellite (COMNETSAT) (pp. 549-556). IEEE.

18-Ghadiri, R. and Elhajj, M., 2023, November. Security and Performance Analysis of Edge Computing in IoT. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Communication, Networks and Satellite (COMNETSAT) (pp. 542-548). IEEE.

19-Martinez, D.M. and Elhajj, M., 2023, August. Iota-mss: A pay-per-play music streaming system based on iota. In 2023 9th International Conference on Computer and Communication Engineering (ICCCE) (pp. 46-51). IEEE.

20-El-hajj, M., 2022, October. Comparative analysis between the fast and basic scalar multiplication used in elliptic curve cryptography. In Interdisciplinary Conference on Mechanics, Computers and Electrics, ICMECE 2022.

21-El-Hajj, M., 2024, September. Enhancing Security in Digital Twin Ecosystems: A Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithm Perspective with TinyJambu. In 2024 11th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics (EECSI) (pp. 295-301). IEEE.

22-Haterd, R. van de, & El-Hajj, M. (2024). Enhancing Privacy and Security in IoT Environments through Secure Multiparty Computation. Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent Systems and New Applications, 2, 64–69. https://doi.org/10.58190/icisna.2024.92

23-Martinez, D.M., Elhajj, M. and Sarmah, D.K., 2024, January. TangleTunes: A P2P Music Streaming Service on the IoTA Distributed Ledger. In 2024 ASU International Conference in Emerging Technologies for Sustainability and Intelligent Systems (ICETSIS) (pp. 591-596). IEEE.

24-Breggeman, F., El-hajj, M. and Hahn, F., 2023, October. A Comparison of Authentication Protocols for Unified Client Applications. In 2023 International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications (ISNCC) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

25-van der Wal, E.W. and El-Hajj, M., 2023, November. Securing IoT Device Networks: A Digital Twin and Automated Adversary Emulation Approach. In 2023 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Digital Twins and Parallel Intelligence (DTPI)(pp. 1-6). IEEE.

26-Gomez, N.R. and El-Hajj, M., 2023, September. An end-to-end Approach to a Reinforcement Learning in Transport Logistics: An end-to-end Approach to a Reinforcement Learning in Transport Logistics. In 16th International Conference on Signal Processing and Communication System, ICPCS 2023.

27-El-hajj, M., 2022, October. Performance analysis of Signcryption and Sign-then-Encrypt schemes for resource-constrained IoT devices. In Interdisciplinary Conference on Mechanics, Computers and Electrics, ICMECE 2022.

28: M. Al Abed, M. El Hajj, K. Samrouth, “Enhancing IoT Device Security Through Digital Twins and Lightweight Cryptography: A Ditto-TinyJAMBU Approach”, International conference on Innovative Technologies in Engineering and Business, 2024.

29- M. El-Hajj and S. Biersteker, "Evaluating the Security and Performance of CoAP Protocol on Raspberry Pi 4 for IoT Applications," 2024 IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Wireless and Mobile (APWiMob), Bali, Indonesia, 2024, pp. 19-25, doi: 10.1109/APWiMob64015.2024.10792962.

30- M. El-Hajj and D. Vorotilov, "Testing the Security and Performance of MQTT Protocol on Raspberry Pi for IoT Applications," 2024 IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Wireless and Mobile (APWiMob), Bali, Indonesia, 2024, pp. 67-72, doi: 10.1109/APWiMob64015.2024.10792961.

31- El-Hajj, M. & Lalande, L.L.M., 2025. Optimizing TLS/SSL for IoT Devices: Performance Enhancements and Security Considerations. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing, 24 March 2025, pp. 458–465.
32- El-Hajj, M., 2025. Lightweight Post-Quantum Cryptographic Solutions for IoT: A Practical Approach. Accepted for publication in: Proceedings of the Fifth Intelligent Cybersecurity Conference (ICSC 2025), 17 Feb – 22 May 2025, Tampa, Florida, USA. IEEE.

33- El-Hajj, M., 2025. AI-Powered Threat Detection and Response: Leveraging Machine Learning for Real-Time Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) Using Network Traffic Data. Accepted for publication in: Proceedings of the Fifth Intelligent Cybersecurity Conference (ICSC 2025), 17 Feb – 22 May 2025, Tampa, Florida, USA. IEEE.

34- El-Hajj, M., 2025. Securing Fault Diagnosis in IoT-Enabled Industrial Systems Using Homomorphic Encryption.Accepted for publication in: Proceedings of the 12th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS 2025), 18–20 June 2025, Paris, France. IFIP.

35- El-Hajj, M., 2025. Energy-Efficient Cryptography for Green Computing: Optimizing Algorithms to Reduce Energy Consumption Without Sacrificing Security. Accepted for publication in: Proceedings of the 12th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS 2025), 18–20 June 2025, Paris, France. IFIP.

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