Anna Ablove
CS PhD @ University of Michigan
About
My name is Anna Ablove, and I am a Computer Science PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, studying under Prof. Roya Ensafi as part of Censored Planet. My research centers on network security and Internet freedom, particularly at the intersection of computer science, policy, and human rights. Generally, I focus on topics such as network measurement, censorship/geoblocking, and the integration of user perspectives. More recently, I’ve been interested in how big tech can aid Internet accessibility and transparency.
🚀 Updates
Aug 2026I presented Technical Analysis of the Geedge Networks Firewall Source Code Leak at USENIX 2026!
July 2026Our work on Cuba won a Best Practical award at FOCI 2026!
Feb 2026I presented Characterizing the Implementation of Censorship Policies in Chinese LLM Services at NDSS 2026!
Nov 2025I placed 1st in the CSE Graduate Honors Competition with my talk Investigating Emerging Private-Sector Censorship Threats!
Sep 2025I travelled to Estoril, Portal to host a booth at the Global Gathering on behalf of Censored Planet, as well as attend OMG 4.
Sep 2025Characterizing the Implementation of Censorship Policies in Chinese LLM Services was accepted to NDSS 2026!
Jun 2025I coordinated the OMG 3 virtual event.
Nov 2024I co-authored a LawFare article How Geoblocking Limits Digital Access in Sanctioned States.
Nov 2024I attended Open Measurement Gathering (OMG) 2 in Atlanta, Georgia as a Censored Planet team member.
Aug 2024Digital Discrimination of Users in Sanctioned States: The Case of the Cuba Embargo received a Distinguished Paper Award at USENIX 2024!
🔗 Publications
- Anna Ablove, Johnnie Walker, Ben Wolin, Niklas Niere, Felix Lange, Aaron Ortwein, Armin Huremagic, Richa Priyanka, Ali Zohaib, Jade Sheffey, Nico Heitmann, J. Alex Halderman, Juraj Somorovsky, Amir Houmansadr, Roya Ensafi, Mingshi Wu, Eric Wustrow
USENIX Security Symposium, 2026 — 196/1569 (12.5%) (Cycle 2) - Aaron Ortwein, Anna Ablove, Armin Huremagic, Luqin Chang, Vinicius Fortuna, Roya Ensafi
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), 2026 — 135/1070 (12.6%) - Anna Ablove*, Shreyas Chandrashekaran*, Xiao Qiang, Roya Ensafi
Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium, 2026 — 265/1481 (17.9%) - Anna Ablove, Shreyas Chandrashekaran, Hieu Le, Ram Sundara Raman, Reethika Ramesh, Harry Oppenheimer, Roya Ensafi
USENIX Security Symposium, 2024 — 417/2276 (18.32%)Distinguished Paper Award Winner 🏆 - Diwen Xue*, Anna Ablove*, Reethika Ramesh, Grace Kwak-Danciu, Roya Ensafi
USENIX Security Symposium, 2024 — 417/2276 (18.32%) - Diwen Xue, Benjamin Mixon-Baca, ValdikSS, Anna Ablove, Beau Kujath, Jedidiah R. Crandall, Roya Ensafi
Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), 2022 — 56/212 (26.42%)
📣 In the News
- University of Michigan CSE — November 2025
- Lawfare — November 2024
- University of Michigan CSE — August 2024
- University of Michigan CSE — August 2024
🌍 Service
- Graduate Student Coordinator for Explore Computer Science Research Program 2025-2026.
- Manager of Tor relay hosted at the University of Michigan.
- Member of Program Committee for Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) 2026, co-located with PETS 2026.
