People

Dr. Murat Gunestas is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at the University of New Haven. His work bridges offensive security research and digital forensic science, drawing on more than a decade of experience across academic research, applied vulnerability research, government cybercrime investigation, and private-sector digital forensics. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from George Mason University and an M.S. in Computer Engineering.

Since 2020, Dr. Gunestas has been a member of the Synack Red Team, a selective, vetted vulnerability research community, through which he identified and was rewarded for approximately 300 security vulnerabilities in production systems by 2023. Earlier in his career, he investigated cybercrime cases at government level and took part in international cybercrime forums, including INTERPOL and the Council of Europe.

His research addresses vulnerability detection, digital forensics and cybercrime investigation, and the application of artificial intelligence to security and forensic workflows. He has authored peer-reviewed publications, serves on conference technical program committees, and mentors student researchers and competitive cybersecurity teams. He has held the CISSP certification since 2015.