Itzhak "Zuk" Avraham (born 23 March 1988) is an Israeli entrepreneur, security expert and white-hat hacker. He is also the Founder and CEO of the mobile security company Zimperium.
Zuk was born and raised in Kfar Yona (Hasharon, Israel) and is the middle child out of three. At the age of 18, as part of the compulsory service in Israel, Zuk joined Intelligence Corps in the IDF as a Security Researcher.
2009: Zuk completed 3 years of military service in the IDF as a Security Researcher.
August 2009: Vulnerability Assessment & security research at Citadel, a Security penetration testing company.
2010: Security research at Samsung. Published Advanced ARM Exploitation whitepaper at Defcon18 and Blackhat.
October 2010: Founded Zimperium, originally as a consulting company specializing in smart device security for Fortune 500 companies.
July 2011: Las Vegas, Nevada, Blackhat 2011 - Launched ANTI (Android Network Toolkit), later renamed zAnti, Android-based penetration testing framework.
Hacking, Papers and Speaking Engagements
July 2010: Defcon18, Las Vegas, Nevada - Zuk released a paper outlining how to bypass modern security mechanisms on ARM CPUs. The research was conducted as part of Samsung’s security research on advanced technologies. It was the first research that managed to bypass modern security features in ARM architecture. Zuk proved that the risk in ARM platforms is similar to X86 platforms for code vulnerabilities - The research was published as "Exploitation on ARM - Technique and Bypassing Defense Mechanisms"
January 2011: Washington DC, Blackhat: These security mechanisms were introduced to Android and iOS platforms in early 2011. The research demonstrated the risk on Android phones, titled: "Popping Shell on A(ndroid)RM Devices"
October 2012: Zimperium wins first prize, Israel’s prestigious Mobile Startup of the Year 2013
February 2013: Barcelona, Spain - Zuk demonstrated the world's first Mobile Intrusion Prevention System (Mobile IPS) at Mobile World Congress 2013
Zuk has presented at numerous conferences and events, including: SANS Fire, Defcon Blackhat USA, HackintheBox (HITB) Hackito Ergo Sum, Intel Security Conference (Invite only), Demo Spring 2012.
