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
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
Sari Kujala, Verena Distler, Robin Welsch
2026
European Psychologist
Isabel Schwaninger, Anastasia Sergeeva, Simon Anell, Francisco Nunes, Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Tiago Guerreiro
2026
Raphael Weidhaas, Alexandra von Preuschen, Verena Distler
2026
Twenty-Second Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2026)
Xiaowei Chen, Lorin Schöni, Verena Distler, Verena Zimmermann
2025
CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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
Doruntina Murtezaj, Viktorija Paneva, Verena Distler, Florian Alt
2025
NSPW '24: Proceedings of the New Security Paradigms Workshop
Jasmin Schwab, Alexander Nussbaum, Anastasia Sergeeva, Florian Alt, Verena Distler
2025
Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, NDSS 2025
Filipo Sharevski, Verena Distler, Florian Alt
2025
Proceedings of the 34th USENIX Security Symposium
Andreas Triantafyllopoulos, Anika A. Spiesberger, Iosif Tsangko, Xin Jing, Verena Distler, Felix Dietz, Florian Alt, Björn W. Schuller
2025
Computer Speech and Language
Yomna Abdelrahman, Florian Alt, Tilman Dingler, Christopher Hadnagy, Abbie Maroño, Verena Distler
2024
Dagstuhl Reports
Xiaowei Chen, Sophie Doublet, Verena Distler
2024
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
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)
Joao Janeiro, Sergio Alves, Tiago Guerreiro, Florian Alt, Verena Distler
2024
IEEE Security & Privacy
Suvadeep Mukherjee, Verena Distler, Gabriele Lenzini, Pedro Cardoso-Leite
2024
Proceedings of the 2024 European Symposium on Usable Security, EuroUSEC 2024
Reha Tuncer, Anastasia Sergeeva, Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Verena Distler, Sophie Doublet, Vincent Koenig
2024
Behaviour and Information Technology
Florian Alt, Mariam Hassib, Verena Distler
2023
2023 New Security Paradigms Workshop, NSPW 2023
Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Jean Louis Sterckx, Arianna Rossi, Anastasia Sergeeva, Vincent Koenig, Salvador Rivas, Verena Distler
2023
Proceedings - EuroUSEC 2023
Xiaowei Chen, Anders Hedman, Verena Distler, Vincent Koenig
2023
Computers in Human Behavior Reports
Verena Distler, Matthias Fassl, Hana Habib, Katharina Krombholz, Gabriele Lenzini, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig, Lorrie Faith Cranor
2023
Human Factors in Privacy Research
Verena Distler
2023
CHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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
Suvadeep Mukherjee, Björn Rohles, Verena Distler, Gabriele Lenzini, Vincent Koenig
2023
Computers & Education
Anastasia Sergeeva, Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Verena Distler, Vincent Koenig
2023
CLIHC 2023 - 11th Latin American Conference on Human Computer Interaction
Anastasia Sergeeva, Björn Rohles, Verena Distler, Vincent Koenig
2023
CHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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
Verena Distler, Tamara Gutfleisch, Carine Lallemand, Gabriele Lenzini, Vincent Koenig
2022
Computers in Human Behavior Reports
Björn Rohles, Sophie Doublet, Kerstin Bongard-Blanchy, Verena Distler, Vincent Fourrier, Anastasia Sergeeva, Vincent Koenig
2022
Verena Distler, Matthias Fassl, Hana Habib, Katharina Krombholz, Gabriele Lenzini, Carine Lallemand, Lorrie Faith Cranor, Vincent Koenig
2021
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
Verena Distler
2021
Marie-Laure Zollinger, Verena Distler, Peter B. Rønne, Peter Y.A. Ryan, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2021
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2020
Computers in Human Behavior
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2020
Proceedings - 5th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, Euro S and PW 2020
Verena Distler, Gabriele Lenzini, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2020
New Security Paradigms Workshop, NSPW 2020 - Post-Proceedings
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
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Thierry Bellet
2018
CHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Verena Distler, Carine Lallemand, Vincent Koenig
2018
Verena Distler
2018
More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.