Thesis title: Detecting and Characterizing Malicious Operations and Tracking Mechanisms in Blockchain and Email Ecosystems
The increasing adoption of decentralized and digital communication systems has created unprecedented opportunities for innovation, but also new avenues for malicious behavior, market manipulation, and privacy violations. This thesis examines emerging threats in two critical digital ecosystems: blockchain decentralized finance (DeFi) and email communications. On the blockchain side, it examines manipulative schemes such as rug pulls, Pump-and-Dump operations, and automated sniper bots that exploit the permissionless nature of DeFi platforms. By analyzing billions of on-chain transactions from Ethereum and the BNB Smart Chain, it quantifies their economic impact and proposes detection and mitigation strategies to enhance ecosystem security. In parallel, the thesis examines the widespread use of tracking pixels in email communications, revealing how commercial tracking infrastructures compromise user privacy and circumvent existing defenses.