Speaker: Lucy Simko

Title: Computer security and privacy for marginalized populations

Abstract: Computer security and privacy is critical for vulnerable and marginalized populations because they can face more determined adversaries or higher consequences for security and privacy issues. At a high level, I work to explore _why_ people are vulnerable–through technical misdesign and societal systems. In this talk, I explore one reason: geopolitical change. First, I will explore how refugees in the US encounter challenges and barriers with authentication because of ill-fitted technology. Next, I will discuss the design and integration of biometric voter verification technologies into the 2019 Afghanistan election, finding a variety of design misalignments. Through these papers and others, I show the importance and difficulty of designing security and privacy for users’ social, political, environmental, and technical contexts.

Bio: Lucy Simko is an Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University. Her work focuses on the security and privacy-related needs, practices, and experiences of under-served populations. Her research has been published at USENIX Security, IEEE Security & Privacy, ACM CCS, PETS, CHI, CSCW, and ACM IDC. She is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the co-recipient of a Safe and Trustworthy Cybersecurity grant (SaTC). Lucy was recently a postdoc at the George Washington University, and she earned her PhD in Computer Science and Engineering in 2022 from the University of Washington.