Steve Hendrikse is a professor in the School of Applied Computer Science & Information Technology at Conestoga College. He specializes in secure and reliable software design, binary executable file analysis, and machine learning applications in cybersecurity.

Before joining Conestoga, Steve worked for a leading video game company, designing anti-cheat and anti-reverse-engineering capabilities for triple-A video games. He also worked as a security analyst, conducting source code audits and helping developers remediate vulnerabilities, and as a red team member for a consulting firm, focusing on network exploitation and penetration testing. He holds a PhD in information assurance, an M.Sc. in information security, a BA in computer science, and a diploma in electronic engineering technology.

Steve has led multiple applied research projects as a principal investigator, including developing machine learning classifiers for anomaly detection, designing a vulnerability mapping tool for network security, and prototyping an end-to-end encrypted web portal for document sharing. He has also co-led research on next-generation in-vehicle automotive security solutions.

Passionate about cybersecurity and software reliability, Steve enjoys sharing his expertise with students, guiding them to develop a deep understanding of secure system design.

Research interests: 

• Secure and reliable software development
• Machine learning for security event detection
• Binary executable file analysis
• Network security and penetration testing