Assistant Professor Verena Distler from Aalto University will give a HAIC Talk on human-centered security on Tuesday 6.5.2025 in Dipoli.
“Humans play an essential role in cybersecurity. They are expected to take secure behaviors to prevent possible attacks on themselves and their environments, like using secure passwords. Humans also regularly face manipulation attempts leaving them to decide on the most appropriate response. Social engineering attacks, such as phishing, are an impactful example.
In this talk, I discuss research at the intersection of psychology and cybersecurity investigating the motivations and experiences people have when it comes to cybersecurity and suggest to critically (re-)consider the role humans play in security by exploring the complexity of factors influencing their experiences and behaviors. In my talk, I investigate how we can leverage this understanding to enhance resistance to various attacks.”
About the speaker: Verena Distler is an Assistant Professor at Aalto University, where she leads the newly founded Security, Privacy and People Research Group. Her research focuses on understanding the human experience when interacting with technology to improve resistance to cyberattacks. Using rigorous methods from multiple disciplines, the group’s objective is to foster human autonomy and control in human-technology interactions. Distler’s work has studied human-centric design of security mechanisms, targeted social engineering, deceptive design and security for underrepresented user groups. She received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Luxembourg in 2021, which was awarded the Excellent PhD Thesis award.
Time: 6.5.2025 at 16:00 – 17:30 (coffee and buns served from 15:30). The lecture will be approximately 45 minutes, after which there will be time for questions.
Venue: Lumituuli auditorium, Dipoli, Aalto University (Otakaari 24, Espoo).
Registration: The event is open to all and free of charge but we ask you to register for the event as there are limited number of seats available.