Roberto Saia

University of Cagliari | UNICA · Department of Mathematics and Information Technology

Ponzi schemes are financial frauds where, under the promise of high profits, users put their money, recovering their investment and interests only if enough users after them continue to invest money. Originated in the offline world 150 years ago, Ponzi schemes have since then migrated to the digital world, approaching first on the Web, and more rec...

More and more financial transactions through different E-commerce platforms have appeared now-days within the big data era bringing plenty of opportunities but also challenges and risks of stealing information for potential frauds that need to be faced. This is due to the massive use of tools such as credit cards for electronic payments which are t...

Lenders, such as credit card companies and banks, use credit scores to evaluate the potential risk posed by lending money to consumers and, therefore, mitigating losses due to bad debt. Within the financial technology domain, an ideal approach should be able to operate proactively, without the need of knowing the behavior of non-reliable users. Act...

The credit scoring models are aimed to assess the capability of refunding a loan by assessing user reliability in several financial contexts, representing a crucial instrument for a large number of financial operators such as banks. Literature solutions offer many approaches designed to evaluate users' reliability on the basis of information about...

The scientific advances of recent years have made available to anyone affordable hardware devices capable of doing something unthinkable until a few years ago, the reading of brain waves. It means that through small wearable devices it is possible to perform an Electroencephalography (EEG), albeit with less potential than those offered by high-cost...

Today's computer system security is critical at every operational level and device, as the compromise of a single element can propagate through connected other network elements, causing unpredictable and dangerous effects. To face unauthorized access and evolving malicious strategies, researchers have intensified efforts to develop effective Intrus...

Biometric systems leveraging ElectroEncephaloGram (EEG) data for user authentication present significant potential in diverse contexts, especially in Smart City ecosystems where secure access to sensitive data is crucial (e.g., healthcare systems, intelligent transportation, smart grids, public safety, and citizen services). However, the complexity...

The development of user identity verification approaches using biometric systems based on EEG data holds significant promise across various domains. However, the inherent complexity and variability of this data make designing reliable solutions challenging. In response to these challenges, this work introduces a Normalized Neural Network Ensemble (...

Urban environments are demanding effective and efficient detection in 3D of objects using monocular cameras, e.g., for intelligent monitoring or decision support. The limited availability of large-scale roadside camera datasets and the mere focus of existing 3D object detection methods on autonomous driving scenarios pose significant challenges for...

Detecting 3D objects in images from urban monocular cameras is essential to enable intelligent monitoring applications for local municipalities decision-support systems. However, existing detection methods in this domain are mainly focused on autonomous driving and limited to frontal views from sensors mounted on the vehicle. In contrast, to monito...

The growing availability of low-cost devices able of performing an Electroencephalography (EEG) has opened stimulating scenarios in the security field, where such data could be exploited as a biometric approach for user identification. However, a series of problems, first of all, the difficulty of obtaining unique and stable EEG patterns over time,...

The ever-increasing use of services based on computer networks, even in crucial areas unthinkable until a few years ago, has made the security of these networks a crucial element for anyone, also in consideration of the increasingly sophisticated techniques and strategies available to attackers. In this context, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) p...

The ever-increasing use of services based on computer networks, even in crucial areas unthinkable until a few years ago, has made the security of these networks a crucial element for anyone, also in consideration of the increasingly sophisticated techniques and strategies available to attackers. In this context, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) p...

Road surveillance systems have an important role in monitoring roads and safeguarding their users. Many of these systems are based on video streams acquired from urban video surveillance infrastructures, from which it is possible to reconstruct the dynamics of accidents and detect other events. However, such systems may lack accuracy in adverse env...

The rating of users requesting financial services is a growing task, especially in this historical period of the COVID-19 pandemic characterized by a dramatic increase in online activities, mainly related to e-commerce. This kind of assessment is a task manually performed in the past that today needs to be carried out by automatic credit scoring sy...

The relatively recent introduction on the market of low-cost devices able to perform an Electroencephalography (EEG) has opened a stimulating research scenario that involves a large number of researchers previously excluded due to the high costs of such hardware. In this regard, one of the most stimulating research fields is focused on the use of s...

The relatively recent introduction on the market of low-cost devices able to perform an Electroencephalography (EEG) has opened a stimulating research scenario that involves a large number of researchers previously excluded due to the high costs of such hardware. In this regard, one of the most stimulating research fields is focused on the use of s...

The rating of users requesting financial services is a growing task, especially in this historical period of the COVID-19 pandemic characterized by a dramatic increase in online activities, mainly related to e-commerce. This kind of assessment is a task manually performed in the past that today needs to be carried out by automatic credit scoring sy...

Anyone working in the field of network intrusion detection has been able to observe how it involves an ever-increasing number of techniques and strategies aimed to overcome the issues that affect the state-of-the-art solutions. Data unbalance and heterogeneity are only some representative examples of them, and each misclassification operates in thi...

The Payments Systems Directive 2 (PSD2), recently issued by the European Union, allows the banks to share their customer data if they authorize the operation. On the one hand, this opportunity offers interesting perspectives to the financial operators, allowing them to evaluate the customers reliability (Credit Scoring) even in the absence of the c...

Anyone working in the field of network intrusion detection has been able to observe how it involves an ever-increasing number of techniques and strategies aimed to overcome the issues that affect the state-of-the-art solutions. Data unbalance and heterogeneity are only some representative examples of them, and each misclassification operates in thi...

The Payments Systems Directive 2 (PSD2), recently issued by the European Union, allows the banks to share their customer data if they authorize the operation. On the one hand, this opportunity offers interesting perspectives to the financial operators, allowing them to evaluate the customers reliability (Credit Scoring) even in the absence of the c...

In the last decades, modern societies are experiencing an increasing adoption of interconnected smart devices. This revolution involves not only canonical devices such as smartphones and tablets, but also simple objects like light bulbs. Named as the Internet of Things (IoT), this ever-growing scenario offers enormous opportunities in many areas of...

The potential offered by the Internet, combined with the enormous number of connectable devices, offers benefits in many areas of our modern societies, both public and private. The possibility of making heterogeneous devices communicate with each other through the Internet has given rise to a constantly growing scenario, which was unthinkable not l...

Anyone working in the field of network intrusion detection has been able to observe how it involves an ever-increasing number of techniques and strategies aimed to overcome the issues that affect the state-of-the-art solutions. Data unbalance and heterogeneity are only some representative examples of them, and each misclassification operates in thi...

The anomaly-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) represent one of the most efficient methods in countering the intrusion attempts against the ever growing number of network-based services. Despite the central role they play, their effectiveness is jeopardized by a series of problems that reduce the IDS effectiveness in a real-world context, mai...

The dramatic increase in devices and services that has characterized modern societies in recent decades, boosted by the exponential growth of ever faster network connections and the predominant use of wireless connection technologies, has materialized a very crucial challenge in terms of security. The anomaly-based Intrusion Detection Systems, whic...

Predicting the popularity of posts on social networks has taken on significant importance in recent years, and several social media management tools now offer solutions to improve and optimize the quality of published content and to enhance the attractiveness of companies and organizations. Scientific research has recently moved in this direction,...

Predicting the popularity of posts on social networks has taken on significant importance in recent years, and several social media management tools now offer solutions to improve and optimize the quality of published content and to enhance the attractiveness of companies and organizations. Scientific research has recently moved in this direction,...

The anomaly-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) represent one of the most efficient methods in countering the intrusion attempts against the ever growing number of network-based services. Despite the central role they play, their effectiveness is jeopardized by a series of problems that reduce the IDS effectiveness in a real-world context, mai...

Nowadays, an increasing number of third-party applications exploit the Bitcoin blockchain to store tamper-proof records of their executions, immutably. To this purpose, they leverage on the few extra bytes available for encoding custom metadata in Bitcoin transactions. A sequence of records of the same application can thus be abstracted as a stand-...

Nowadays, machine learning usage has gained significant interest in financial time series prediction, hence being a promise land for financial applications such as algorithmic trading. In this setting, this paper proposes a general framework based on an ensemble of regression algorithms and dynamic asset selection applied to the well known statisti...

Nowadays, machine learning usage has gained significant interest in financial time series prediction, hence being a promise land for financial applications such as algorithmic trading. In this setting, this paper proposes a general approach based on an ensemble of regression algorithms and dynamic asset selection applied to the well-known statistic...

The increasing amount of credit offered by financial institutions has required intelligent and efficient methodologies of credit scoring. Therefore, the use of different machine learning solutions to that task has been growing during the past recent years. Such procedures have been used in order to identify customers who are reliable or unreliable,...

Financial markets forecasting represents a challenging task for a series of reasons, such as the irregularity, high fluctuation, noise of the involved data, and the peculiar high unpredictability of the financial domain. Moreover, literature does not offer a proper methodology to systematically identify intrinsic and hyper-parameters, input feature...

The unbreakable bond that exists today between devices and network connections makes the security of the latter a crucial element for our society. For this reason, in recent decades we have witnessed an exponential growth in research efforts aimed at identifying increasingly efficient techniques able to tackle this type of problem, such as the Intr...

The automated credit scoring tools play a crucial role in many financial environments, since they are able to perform a real-time evaluation of a user (e.g., a loan applicant) on the basis of several solvency criteria, without the aid of human operators. Such an automation allows who work and offer services in the financial area to take quick decis...

Nowadays, communications made by using the modern Internet-based opportunities have revolutionized the way people exchange information between them, allowing real-time discussions among a huge number of people. However, the advantages offered by such powerful instruments of communication are sometimes jeopardized by the dangers related to personal...

The automated credit scoring tools play a crucial role in many financial environments, since they are able to perform a real-time evaluation of a user (e.g., a loan applicant) on the basis of several solvency criteria, without the aid of human operators. Such an automation allows who work and offer services in the financial area to take quick decis...

The unbreakable bond that exists today between devices and network connections makes the security of the latter a crucial element for our society. For this reason, in recent decades we have witnessed an exponential growth in research efforts aimed at identifying increasingly efficient techniques able to tackle this type of problem, such as the Intr...

Nowadays, communications made by using the modern Internet-based opportunities have revolutionized the way people exchange information between them, allowing real-time discussions among a huge number of people. However, the advantages offered by such powerful instruments of communication are sometimes jeopardized by the dangers related to personal...

Ponzi schemes are financial frauds which lure users under the promise of high profits. Actually, users are repaid only with the investments of new users joining the scheme: consequently, a Ponzi scheme implodes soon after users stop joining it. Originated in the offline world 150 years ago, Ponzi schemes have since then migrated to the digital worl...

The exponential growth of wireless-based solutions, such as those related to the mobile smart devices (e.g., smart-phones and tablets) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has lead to countless advantages in every area of our society. Such a scenario has transformed the world a few decades back, dominated by latency, into a new world based on an e...

The exponential growth of wireless-based solutions, such as those related to the mobile smart devices (e.g., smart-phones and tablets) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has lead to countless advantages in every area of our society. Such a scenario has transformed the world a few decades back, dominated by latency, into a new world based on an e...

Many authoritative studies report how in these last years the consumer credit was up year on year, making it necessary to develop instruments able to assist the financial operators in some crucial tasks. The most important of them is to classify the loan applications as reliable or unreliable, on the basis of the customer information at their dispo...

E-commerce is becoming more and more the main instrument for selling goods to the mass market. This led to a growing interest in algorithms and techniques able to predict products future prices, since they allow us to define smart systems able to improve the quality of life by suggesting more affordable goods and services. The joint use of time ser...

The exponential growth in the number of E-commerce transactions indicates a radical change in the way people buy and sell goods and services, a new opportunity offered by a huge global market, where they may choose sellers or buyers on the basis of multiple criteria (e.g., economic, logistical, ethical, sustainability, etc.), without being forced t...

The exponential growth of the e-commerce environment is directly related to the growth in the number of financial transactions made by credit cards, since almost all the commercial operators allow their customers to use such means of payment. This scenario has also led to the growth of fraud attempts, which are carried out in increasing numbers, in...

The exponential growth of the e-commerce environment is directly related to the growth in the number of financial transactions made by credit cards, since almost all the commercial operators allow their customers to use such means of payment. This scenario has also led to the growth of fraud attempts, which are carried out in increasing numbers, in...

Many authoritative studies report how in these last years the consumer credit was up year on year, making it necessary to develop instruments able to assist the financial operators in some crucial tasks. The most important of them is to classify the loan applications as reliable or unreliable, on the basis of the customer information at their dispo...

Nowadays, it is clear how the network services represent a widespread element, which is absolutely essential for each category of users, professional and non-professional. Such a scenario needs a constant research activity aimed to ensure the security of the involved services, so as to prevent any fraudulently exploitation of the related network re...

The exponential growth of wireless-based solutions, such as those related to the mobile smart devices (e.g., smart-phones and tablets) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, has lead to countless advantages in every area of our society. Such a scenario has transformed the world a few decades back, dominated by latency, into a new world based on an e...

When browsing social media, we get in touch with great amounts of content that, if well exploited, can provide valuable knowledge on our preferences. On the one hand, the opportunities that the interaction of the users with social content can offer are great, since they represent implicit feedbacks that the users provide on what they like. On the o...

When browsing social media, we get in touch with great amounts of content that, if well exploited, can provide valuable knowledge on our preferences. On the one hand, the opportunities that the interaction of the users with social content can offer are great, since they represent implicit feedbacks that the users provide on what they like. On the o...

The exponential growth of the number of E-commerce transactions indicates a radical change in the way people buy and sell goods and services, a new opportunity offered by a huge global market, where they can choose their sellers or buyers on the basis of multiple criteria (e.g., economic, logistical, ethical, sustainability, etc.), instead of being...

The exponential growth of the number of E-commerce transactions indicates a radical change in the way people buy and sell goods and services, a new opportunity offered by a huge global market, where they can choose their sellers or buyers on the basis of multiple criteria (e.g., economic, logistical, ethical, sustainability, etc.), instead of being...

The problem of frauds is becoming increasingly important in this E-commerce age, where an enormous number of financial transactions are carried out by using electronic instruments of payment such as credit cards. Given the impossibility of adopting human-driven solutions, due to the huge number of involved operations, the only possible way to face...

The problem of frauds is becoming increasingly important in this E-commerce age, where an enormous number of financial transactions are carried out by using electronic instruments of payment such as credit cards. Given the impossibility of adopting human-driven solutions, due to the huge number of involved operations, the only possible way to face...

Nowadays, the dramatic growth in consumer credit has made ineffective the methods based on the human intervention, aimed to assess the potential solvency of loan applicants. For this reason, the development of approaches able to automate this operation represents today an active and important research area named Credit Scoring. In such scenario it...

Nowadays, the dramatic growth in consumer credit has made ineffective the methods based on the human intervention, aimed to assess the potential solvency of loan applicants. For this reason, the development of approaches able to automate this operation represents today an active and important research area named Credit Scoring. In such scenario it...

Nowadays, the dramatic growth in consumer credit has made ineffective the methods based on the human intervention, aimed to assess the potential solvency of loan applicants. For this reason, the development of approaches able to automate this operation represents today an active and important research area named Credit Scoring. In such scenario it...

The increase of consumer credit has made it necessary to research more and more effective models for the credit scoring. Such models are usually trained by using the past loan applications, evaluating the new ones on the basis of certain criteria. Although the state of the art offers several different approaches for their definition, this process r...

The increase of consumer credit has made it necessary to research more and more effective models for the credit scoring. Such models are usually trained by using the past loan applications, evaluating the new ones on the basis of certain criteria. Although the state of the art offers several different approaches for their definition, this process r...

The exponential growth in the number of operations carried out in the e-commerce environment is directly related to the growth in the number of operations performed through credit cards. This happens because practically all commercial operators allow their customers to make their payments by using them. Such scenario leads toward an high level of r...