Mazurek Hopes to Blend Cybersecurity and Human-Computer Interaction

A new UMIACS faculty member is looking to combine her passion for cybersecurity and human-computer interaction to make it easier for people to safely navigate the Internet.

Michelle Mazurek, an assistant professor of computer science at UMD, is the newest member of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2) and also holds an appointment in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL).

MC2 and HCIL are two of 16 centers and labs in the university’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS).

Mazurek is working on projects related to human factors in privacy and security. In particular, helping people make better-informed information-sharing decisions with less effort.

“I'm very excited about the collaboration opportunities within MC2 and across UMIACS, more generally,” she says. “I've already been talking to some great people about projects we can get started. I'm hoping I can contribute to bridging MC2 and HCIL.”

Mazurek joins UMD from the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Lab and the Parallel Data Lab at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Her research at CMU included work with a group investigating usability-security tradeoffs for passwords; in particular how password policies, user instructions, demographics, and behavioral factors affect the passwords users create. The group developed new metrics for password strength, pioneered the use of large online studies to collect controlled password data, and analyzed 25,000 real CMU passwords.

Mazurek received her doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014.

- Melissa Brachfeld