NEWS Data security breaches and advanced cyber-attacks cost society billions. One who recognised the risks at an early stage and continues to develop effective solutions is Alexandre Bartel, Professor and Head of the Software Engineering and Security research group at ͯÑÕÊÓƵ. He now receives five internationally renowned awards for his efforts. "It is satisfying to see how our research is helping companies, developers and users around the world", says Alexandre Bartel.
Alexandre Bartel, Professor of Software Engineering and Cybersecurity at Umeå University, has received a series of prestigious awards over the past year. He is now recruiting both PhD students and postdoctoral researchers for WASP and the new Cybercampus, a national initiative aimed at strengthening both skills development and research in cybersecurity.
ImageVictoria SkeidsvollWe are facing a growing digital threat. Cyber-attacks against companies, authorities and critical infrastructure have increased significantly, resulting in huge costs. One aspect of making it harder for attackers to compromise computer systems is to have robust software and reliable data security systems. This is something that Alexandre Bartel, Professor at the Department of Computing Science is improving through his research.
Now he's been awarded some of the most prestigious prizes, as well as an honorary award for his excellent academic leadership.
"This is proof that my colleagues from around the world and I are creating solutions that are appreciated by both the research community and society at large, and are relevant and useful," Prof. Bartel says.
His research has sparked a minor revolution in data and cybersecurity, leading to the development of entirely new and advanced tools that detect vulnerabilities, anomalies, and attacks on digital systems at an early stage. An international breakthrough came as early as 2015, when he and his colleagues analysed the popular Android app Shake them all, which had been downloaded millions of times worldwide.
With their analysis tool IccTA, the researchers revealed that the app was secretly recording users’ conversations. "This was a clear and serious security issue that we were able to find. It marked a breakthrough in the research community, and our technology has since influenced the entire field of Android application analysis. Android is an operating system used on billions of devices globally, including by major manufacturers such as Samsung", says Professor Alexandre Bartel.
For this achievement, Professor Bartel has now been awarded the prestigious Most Influential Research Paper Award ICSE 2025, a distinguished prize given to research that has demonstrated significant impact over an extended period. Alexandre Bartel has also been awarded this year's ACM Sigsoft Distinguished Paper Award for his analysis of vulnerabilities in Java, one of the world's most used programming languages, together with doctoral student Bruno Kreyssig. Prof. Bartel was also honored with the Most Influential PLDI Paper Award 2024 for the work on FlowDroid, a tool now used globally to detect security flaws in Java and Android programs. This research has been cited 2,000 times and is used by researchers and developers to test and improve their own tools. "Our research has enabled companies to review code and prevent attacks through techniques such as fuzzing and reverse engineering. In this way, we contribute tools that can analyse code both during development and execution. This allows more complex vulnerabilities to be detected and addressed, says Prof. Bartel.
In addition to his research awards, Professor Bartel has also been honored with the ACM CCS 2025 Top Reviewer Award as well as the IEEE SecDev 2024 Distinguished Reviewer Award – recognitions of his work as a peer reviewer of scientific articles. "This process is a complex but crucial step in research. If it fails, it can affect both the quality of the research and public confidence", says Prof. Bartel. "The research community recognizes our great work, and I am honored to share these distinctions with my outstanding group members whose efforts greatly shaped our success.
At Umeå University, Professor Alexandre Bartel leads the research group Software Engineering and Security, which is financed by and . Bartel is currently recruiting doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers on and projects. Professor Alexandre Bartel has also received an educational award for his teaching in Cyber security – a highly popular course that attracts many students in Sweden.
The Software Engineering and Security research group is closely monitoring developments in artificial intelligence and is raising awareness about the risks of AI-generated code, which may contain hidden vulnerabilities. "AI is a powerful tool, but it requires human oversight. Otherwise, we risk building systems with inherent weaknesses that can, for instance, be exploited in supply chain attacks", Bartel says.
Alexandre Bartel's work holds significant value both in academic research and in real-world applications. "His expertise in cybersecurity is widely recognized and has a broad impact across society", says Professor Frank Drewes, Head of the Department of Computing Science at Umeå University. "It stands as a clear example of the high regard in which our researchers are held within the international scientific community".
Alexandre Bartel has been featured in the Swedish media for his analyses of security flaws in Covid tests, vulnerabilities in Java and extensive ransomware attacks against Swedish companies. Among other things, he has commented .
