CS Faculty Candidate Talk: Dr. Madiha Tabassum

Title: Empowering people to enable safer access to digital technologies

Time: February 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Location: M03-732/Web lab. Refreshments will be served. (US and Canada)

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Abstract: In an increasingly interconnected world, security, privacy, and safety pose critical challenges in sociotechnical systems where technology and human interactions are deeply intertwined. Risks in these systems arise not only from technical vulnerabilities but also from human behavior and social dynamics. My research, situated at the intersection of security, privacy, and human-computer interaction, seeks to empower individuals by facilitating safer access to digital technologies. In this talk, I will first present findings from a qualitative content analysis of Reddit moderators' help-seeking posts in their efforts to combat hate and harassment. This analysis highlights the challenges community moderators face, how platform features are misused for online abuse, and proposes design themes for platforms to resist such misuse. Next, I will discuss end users' security and privacy preferences in smart home environments and describe the development and evaluation of community collaboration tools that enable members to support one another in making security and privacy decisions. Finally, I will conclude by discussing emerging and future directions in my research, focusing on the design of security, privacy, and collaboration tools to empower underserved communities and examining the potential role of generative AI in supporting human decision-making related to security and privacy.

Bio: Madiha Tabassum is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University. Her work takes a human-centered approach to understanding the digital security, privacy, and safety challenges that emerge at the intersection of technology and people. She earned her Ph.D. in Software and Information Systems from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.