Research Group Humans, Security and Privacy
We study how people experience and respond to digital deception and manipulation, and how technology can support informed decision-making and user autonomy.
Building a resilient future
Our interdisciplinary research examines human resilience to deception and risk in digital environments. We study how people experience and respond to social engineering, misinformation, and other forms of online manipulation, and how technology can support more informed and autonomous decision-making.
Our research interests are:
- Human experiences of digital deception, including social engineering, misinformation, and related online manipulation.
- Design and evaluation of user-centered technologies that support critical judgment, informed choices, and user autonomy.
- Behaviors in response to security technologies and interventions.
Keywords: Human-centered security, Digital deception, Digital manipulation, HCI, Social engineering, Misinformation
Professorship Distler Group
Shijing He
Incoming Postdoctoral Researcher
Juho Alin
Master thesis researcher / Research assistant
Co-supervision with Sanna Suoranta; Misinformation
Vitor Horodynski
Master thesis researcher
Misinformation
Ira Laihanen
Master thesis researcher
Cybersecurity education
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.
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Your study transcript incl. grades and scale;
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CV
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Short motivation incl. the research questions that interest you, and how they connect with the group's work specifically (see publications below).
Latest publications
Too Many Zombies : Exploring Challenges and Motivations for (Not) Deleting Unused Online Accounts
Franziska Bumiller, Sarah Delgado Rodriguez, Lukas Mecke, Verena Distler, Florian Alt
2026
CHI 2026 - Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Application of Psychological Theories in European Human–Computer Interaction : A Scoping Review
Sari Kujala, Verena Distler, Robin Welsch
2026
European Psychologist
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
Empowering Parents to Support Children's Online Security and Privacy : Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial
Xiaowei Chen, Verena Distler, Chloe Gordon, Yaxing Yao, Ziwen Teuber
2025
CCS 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security
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)
“Helps me Take the Post With a Grain of Salt:” Soft Moderation Effects on Accuracy Perceptions and Sharing Intentions of Inauthentic Political Content on X
Filipo Sharevski, Verena Distler, Florian Alt
2025
Proceedings of the 34th USENIX Security Symposium
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
Making Motivation Theories Accessible: Introducing Motivation Cards to Map Motivators for Security and Privacy Education
Xiaowei Chen, Sophie Doublet, Verena Distler
2024
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
Running out of time(rs)
Reha Tuncer, Anastasia Sergeeva, Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Verena Distler, Sophie Doublet, Vincent Koenig
2024
Behaviour and Information Technology
Human-centered Behavioral and Physiological Security
Florian Alt, Mariam Hassib, Verena Distler
2023
2023 New Security Paradigms Workshop, NSPW 2023
Analysing the Influence of Loss-Gain Framing on Data Disclosure Behaviour
Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Jean Louis Sterckx, Arianna Rossi, Anastasia Sergeeva, Vincent Koenig, Salvador Rivas, Verena Distler
2023
Proceedings - EuroUSEC 2023
Do persuasive designs make smartphones more addictive? - A mixed-methods study on Chinese university students
Xiaowei Chen, Anders Hedman, Verena Distler, Vincent Koenig
2023
Computers in Human Behavior Reports
Empirical Research Methods in Usable Privacy and Security
Verena Distler, Matthias Fassl, Hana Habib, Katharina Krombholz, Gabriele Lenzini, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig, Lorrie Faith Cranor
2023
Human Factors in Privacy Research
The Influence of Context on Response to Spear-Phishing Attacks
Verena Distler
2023
CHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Triggering Empathy out of Malicious Intent
Verena Distler, Yasmeen Abdrabou, Felix Dietz, Florian Alt
2023
Proceedings of the 2nd Empathy-Centric Design Workshop, EmpathiCH 2023 - Collocated with ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
The effects of privacy-non-invasive interventions on cheating prevention and user experience in unproctored online assessments
Suvadeep Mukherjee, Björn Rohles, Verena Distler, Gabriele Lenzini, Vincent Koenig
2023
Computers & Education
The Perceived Influence of E-Shopping Cues on Customers' Buying Decisions
Anastasia Sergeeva, Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Verena Distler, Vincent Koenig
2023
CLIHC 2023 - 11th Latin American Conference on Human Computer Interaction
"We Need a Big Revolution in Email Advertising"
Anastasia Sergeeva, Björn Rohles, Verena Distler, Vincent Koenig
2023
CHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
An (Un)Necessary Evil - Users' (Un)Certainty about Smartphone App Permissions and Implications for Privacy Engineering
Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Jean Louis Sterckx, Arianna Rossi, Verena Distler, Salvador Rivas, Vincent Koenig
2022
Proceedings - 7th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, Euro S and PW 2022
Complex, but in a good way? How to represent encryption to non-experts through text and visuals – Evidence from expert co-creation and a vignette experiment
Verena Distler, Tamara Gutfleisch, Carine Lallemand, Gabriele Lenzini, Vincent Koenig
2022
Computers in Human Behavior Reports
"Do we need an entire course about it?": Evaluating two years of teaching HCI in computer science
Björn Rohles, Sophie Doublet, Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Verena Distler, Vincent Fourrier, Anastasia Sergeeva, Vincent Koenig
2022
A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Methods and Risk Representation in Usable Privacy and Security Research
Verena Distler, Matthias Fassl, Hana Habib, Katharina Krombholz, Gabriele Lenzini, Carine Lallemand, Lorrie Faith Cranor, Vincent Koenig
2021
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
The Experience of Security in Human-Computer Interactions: Understanding Security Perceptions Through the Concept of User Experience
Verena Distler
2021
User Experience Design for E-Voting: How mental models align with security mechanisms
Marie-Laure Zollinger, Verena Distler, Peter B. Rønne, Peter Y.A. Ryan, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2021
How Acceptable Is This? How User Experience Factors Can Broaden our Understanding of The Acceptance of Privacy Trade-offs
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2020
Computers in Human Behavior
Making Encryption Feel Secure
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2020
Proceedings - 5th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, Euro S and PW 2020
The Framework of Security-Enhancing Friction
Verena Distler, Gabriele Lenzini, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2020
New Security Paradigms Workshop, NSPW 2020 - Post-Proceedings
Security - Visible, yet unseen? How displaying security mechanisms impacts user experience and perceived security
Verena Distler, Marie Laure Zollinger, Carine Lallemand, Peter B. Roenne, Peter Y.A. Ryan, Vincent Koenig
2019
CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Acceptability and acceptance of autonomous mobility on demand
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Thierry Bellet
2018
CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
A UX Approach to Privacy and Security: the Impact of User, Contextual and System-Related Factors
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2018
Understanding human need fulfilment to support the design of secure experiences
Verena Distler
2018