Dr. Avesta Hojjati

VP of Engineering | DigiCert

Dr. Avesta Hojjati is the VP of Engineering at DigiCert. Prior to joining DigiCert, Dr. Hojjati held a variety of roles at large enterprises such as Symantec and Yahoo, as well as being a founder and CEO at Security7 Inc., a penetration testing company. At DigiCert, Dr. Hojjati leads the advanced development of a suite of cybersecurity products, including embedded/IoT device security and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) solutions, in addition to influencing the broader product roadmap in conjunction with the M&A strategy. Dr. Hojjati is commonly known for his research on identifying side-channel attacks on embedded devices such as medical devices, industrial 3D printers, and connected vehicles. At DigiCert, Dr. Hojjati’s research is focused on security and privacy, applied cryptography (including privacy-enhancing technologies and post-quantum cryptography), as well as securing artificial intelligence systems. He is a member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) and serves as a board member of Rutgers University Continuing Education, Sovrin Foundation, ID4me AISBL, and several startups.Dr. Hojjati earned his Masters and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his Bachelor's in Computer Science from Texas Tech University. He has authored over 20 journal/conference papers and is the inventor of 30 U.S. patents, both granted and pending.