Department of Computer Science

Research Group Humans, Security and Privacy

Our research focuses on understanding the human experience when interacting with technology, investigating questions surrounding human-centered security and privacy.

Our research aims to bridge the gap between social sciences and computer science to bring a nuanced understanding of the human experience in interaction with technology. Our objective is to foster human autonomy and control in human-technology interactions. 

Our research interests are: 

  • Human experiences of technology, especially relating to security and privacy
  • Manipulative and deceptive interactions with technology (e.g., social engineering, misinformation)
  • Methods to study experiences in the presence of risk
 Xiaowei Chen

Xiaowei Chen

External Doctoral Researcher (Co-Supervision)

Work with us!

If you are interested to write a Master thesis (Aalto students) with us, join us for a research visit, or would like to ask about PhD or postdoc opportunities, please reach out to Assistant Professor Verena Distler with the following information. Only requests including this information can be answered. 

  1. Your study transcript incl. grades and scale; 

  2. CV

  3. Short motivation incl. the research questions that interest you, and how they connect with the group's work specifically (see publications below). 
     

Latest publications

Beyond Deterrence: A Systematic Review of the Role of Autonomous Motivation in Organizational Security Behavior Studies

Xiaowei Chen, Lorin Schöni, Verena Distler, Verena Zimmermann 2025 CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Public Security User Interfaces Supporting Spontaneous Engagement with IT Security

Doruntina Murtezaj, Viktorija Paneva, Verena Distler, Florian Alt 2025 NSPW '24: Proceedings of the New Security Paradigms Workshop

What Makes Phishing Simulation Campaigns (Un)Acceptable? A Vignette Experiment on the Acceptance and Manipulation Intention Related to Phishing Simulation Campaigns

Jasmin Schwab, Alexander Nussbaum, Anastasia Sergeeva, Florian Alt, Verena Distler 2025 NDSS Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC)

Vishing: Detecting social engineering in spoken communication — A first survey & urgent roadmap to address an emerging societal challenge

Andreas Triantafyllopoulos, Anika A. Spiesberger, Iosif Tsangko, Xin Jing, Verena Distler, Felix Dietz, Florian Alt, Björn W. Schuller 2025 Computer Speech and Language

Defining and Fortifying Against Cognitive Vulnerabilities in Social Engineering

Yomna Abdelrahman, Florian Alt, Tilman Dingler, Christopher Hadnagy, Abbie Maroño, Verena Distler 2024 Dagstuhl Reports

The Effects of Group Discussion and Role-playing Training on Self-efficacy, Support-seeking, and Reporting Phishing Emails : Evidence from a Mixed-design Experiment

Xiaowei Chen, Margault Sacre, Gabriele Lenzini, Samuel Greiff, Verena Distler, Anastasia Sergeeva 2024 CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

What Motivates and Discourages Employees in Phishing Interventions: An Exploration of Expectancy-Value Theory

Xiaowei Chen, Sophie Doublet, Anastasia Sergeeva, Gabriele Lenzini, Vincent Koenig, Verena Distler 2024 Proceedings of the Twentieth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2024)

Understanding Phishing Experiences of Screen Reader Users

Joao Janeiro, Sergio Alves, Tiago Guerreiro, Florian Alt, Verena Distler 2024 IEEE Security & Privacy

Balancing The Perception of Cheating Detection, Privacy and Fairness : A Mixed-Methods Study of Visual Data Obfuscation in Remote Proctoring

Suvadeep Mukherjee, Verena Distler, Gabriele Lenzini, Pedro Cardoso-Leite 2024 Proceedings of the 2024 European Symposium on Usable Security, EuroUSEC 2024
More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.
Research portal
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