Ongoing Projects

This page serves as a repository of my current projects.

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Usable Secure Messengers

Messengers such as Signal, Element, etc., offer privacy to individuals who wish to communicate. However, do these privacy gains come with usability and UX drawbacks? In this project we study different aspects of the usable security and UX of different secure messengers.

Current Status

Researching Element UX questions.

(For Reddit verification, the student’s Reddit handle is Lonely_Actuator4029.)

Next Steps

1. Recruit individuals for our study through Reddit.

Previous Steps

1. Perform a literature review.
2. Write a research proposal
3. Develop research plan and protocol.

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Envisioning and Implementing Horizontal Security

Cybersecurity has its origin in military, which typically exhibits a very hierarchical structre. But what would cybersecurity look like in a democractic, horizontal entity? How do actvist groups, worker cooperatives, and other horizontal groups design security? What technology could we create to facilitate horizontal security policy creation, implementation, and enforcement?

Current Status

COLBAC: Shifting Cybersecurity From Hierarchical to Horizontal Designs was published in NSPW 2021.

Next Steps

1. Study the security practices of horizontal organizations.
2. Develop a technological solution to allow activists organizations, NGOs, and other more horizontal groups to avoid “password wars,” or, the occurance of a malicious insider denying the group access to their third party accounts.
3. Identify necessary changes in traditional cybersecurity concepts and technologies to facilitate horizontality, and implementing them.
4. Work towards applying a COLBAC-like solution to the Portuguese Parliament’s insider attack threat model.

Previous Steps

1. Presented COLBAC, a collective based access control system, to NSPW

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Measuring Tor’s User Experience

The Tor Browser is the currently the best low-latency anonymity solution on the Internet. However, users of the Tor Browser often come across issues. What isuses do users face when using Tor? Why do users use Tor? How do they understand what Tor is providing them? What can developers do better to provide a better experience on their site for Tor Browser users?

Current Status

Submitted Scanning the Web for Tor Friendliness to PETS 2023. Resubmission in the next cycle.

Next Steps

1. Implement recommendations from my previous publications and evaluate their efficacy.
2. Create plugins that allow for easy Tor Browser friendly site development.

Previous Steps

1. Measured user perceptions of the Tor anonymity network, and why they use Tor.
2. Measured what issues new users may face if they were to adopt the Tor Browser as their default Browser.
3. Created a scanner to scan the Internet and provide useful feedback to web developers on how to improve the Tor Browser Friendliness of their site.

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Determining the Practices of People Search Websites

People Search Websites aggregate and publicize users’ Personal Identifiable Information (PII), previously sourced from data brokers and make it available to customers who wish to access that information. In this project we study how people can interact with People Search Websites, how effective data removal from these People Search Websites are, and dark patterns in the operation of these sites.

Current Status

``It Feels Like Whack-a-mole’’: User Experiences of Data Removal from People Search Websites was published in PETS 2022.

Next Steps

1. Study the effectiveness of different methods of data removal from People Search Websites through an empircal, controled study.

Previous Steps

1. Studied people’s perceptions of people search websites, their experiences trying to remove data from them, and their motivations for doing so.
2. Worked with Kejsi T. and others to publish ``It Feels Like Whack-a-mole’’ in PETS 2022.

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