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13 November 2024 - The SPG group in the ETH news: The article "Authenticate As You Go: From Exploring Smart Home Authentication with Daily Objects to Authenticating with Primary Tasks" by Zimmermann et al. that published in the ACM TOCHI journal, the flagship journal for Human-Computer Interaction research, is featured in the ETH news article "Everyday routines as the key to logging in".

22 October 2024 - InnoCheque granted: We are happy to anounce that an InnoCheque has been granted by external page Innosuisse to start of an exciting project with external page SWITCH and external page White Rabbit Communications. We will explore ways to support especially SMEs with limited budgests and capacities in assessing and developing their cybersecuirty culture and awareness strategy.

21 October 2024 - Podcast: The new SRF Podcast series "Die Cookiefalle" features Verena Zimmermann and our collaborator Nico Ebert. It explains what happens if you "Accept all" and what the challenges with today's cookie interfaces are. Check it out on external page SRF (in German).

30 September 2024 - EuroUSEC Presentation: At the external page EuroUSEC 2024 conference in Karlstad, Lorin Schöni presented our paper, external page You Know What? - Evaluation of a Personalised Phishing Training Based on Users' Phishing Knowledge and Detection Skills. The paper discusses the need for personalised phishing training and presents a method for implementing it.

28 August 2024 - RTS Radio Broadcast with Noé Zufferey: In the radio episode "Montres connectées et sécurité" Noé discusses his research on the potential to infer personality traits from smartwatch data, such as step count. If you are interested in learning more, check out the external page episode (in French).    

20 August 2024 - Team Event: We had the pleasure of spending a sunny afternoon on Lake Zurich, enjoying Stand Up Paddling with the entire team.

18 August 2024 - Distinguished Paper Award: Our paper external page "Beyond Fear and Frustration - Towards a Holistic Understanding of Emotions in Cybersecurity" won the Distinguished Paper Award at SOUPS this year. Congratulations, Alexandra!

30 July 2024 - Invitation to join Pre-SOUPS talks: On the 30 July from 10 to 11.30 pm at STB G 14 we will have the pleasure to receive insights into three off-the-press publications that will all be presented at this year's SOUPS - the Usenix Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security research. We are excited to host the following three presentations:

  • Neele Roch: Navigating Autonomy: Unveiling Security Experts' Perspectives on Augmented Intelligence in Cybersecurity
  • Alexandra von Preuschen: Beyond Fear and Frustration - Towards a Holistic Understanding of Emotions in Cybersecurity
  • Dr. Nina Gerber: Of Mothers and Managers – The Effect of Videos Depicting Gender Stereotypes on Women and Men in the Security and Privacy Field

If you like to join remotely, please drop us an email.

26 June 2024 - SRF Interview: The SRF report on cookie banners and data sharing with Verena Zimmermann explains what can happen when you accept cookies. Take a look at the external page 10 vor 10 report.  

24 June 2024 - external page Swiss IT Leadership Forum: Together with external page Christine Fahlberg from Swisscard Verena Zimmermann had the pleasure of shining a light on both the practical and research perspectives on Security Awareness and the Human Factor in Security. The historical hotel Schatzalp in Davos was a great scene for the intense exchange on cybersecurity.

20/21 June 2024 - Team Retreat: We met in beautiful Weggis, nestled at the serene Lake of Lucerne, for our second team retreat, to reflect on what we achieved. We had an amazing time discussing our research and to plan for what lies ahead.

17 May 2024 - Innovedum Project Granted: We are so happy to have the chance to develop a learning tool that aims to leverage the benefits of personalizing learning content to students while making the privacy implications thereof graspable and controllable. The project is labelled "PIA - Privacy Implications of AI-based Personalized Learning Tools" and financially supoorted by Innovedum.

14 May 2024 - Paper accepted: Congratulations to Neele Roch who has an article accepted at the external page Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security entitled "Navigating Autonomy: Unveiling Security Experts' - Perspectives on Augmented Intelligence in Cybersecurity". She will present our work in August in Philadelphia.  

10 May 2024 - Paper accepted: Congratulations to Adrienn Toth who will present two papers in the Late Braking Work track and within the Doctoral Consortium at the external page ACM UMAP conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization in Cagliari, Sardinia.   

7 May 2024 - external page Dr. Verena Distler from the University of the Bundeswehr, Munich, gave a talk in the Behavioral Studies Colloquium entitled “Mechanisms of Manipulation: How Technology Users Interact with Manipulative and Deceptive Communication.”

9 April 2024 - We hacked the hacker! Together with partners from CYREN ZH, we played the Escape Room at Switch. It was great fun to increase our cybersecurity awareness and learn about password hashes and security. Thanks to Switch and Fabio Greiner!

20 March 2024 - Swiss Cyber Circle: What an interesting session with the external page Swiss Cyber Circle focusing on how to prepare for and train for cybersecurity crisis that we supported as a research partner. Thanks to everyone involved and the hosts Milena Thalmann, Peter Kosel and Stefan von Rohr.

23 February 2024 - HCI@ETH: The SPG group is part of HCI@ETH, a great initiative to make human-computer interaction research at ETHZ visible and to connect related groups across departments. Check out the new corresponding website.  

1 February 2024 - Informatiktage: The SPG team will proudly support the Informatiktage 2024 at ETH with a talk on "Mensch-Computer-Interaktion: Der Mensch als Sicherheitsfaktor" on Saturday 23rd March. For more details please see the external page program.

17 January 2024 - Swiss Cyber Circle: Prof. Verena Zimmermann, Lorin Schöni and Neele Roch led a workshop on "Can IT Security learn from Safety?" in this year's first session of the external page Swiss Cyber Circle. Thanks to the great organizing commitee and the engaging discussions with the participating CISOs. We are looking forward to the next sessions.

8 December 2023 - Xmas dinner & event: Beautiful hike in the snow from Üetliberg to Felsenegg with well-deserved dinner there.

Welcome

We would like to welcome our academic guest Anastasija COLLEN, starting on 14 October, 2024 for a month.

We would like to welcome Qianjun ZHENG to our team. He will be our new student assistant, starting August 1, 2024.

We would like to welcome Alexandra VON PREUSCHEN to our group. She will be our academic guest for a month, starting on July 8th, 2024.

A warm welcome to Dr. Nina GERBER from TU Darmstadt/Germany who will be our academic guest in July 2024.

 

Current Theses Projects

Take a look at our currently offered theses and student projects!

Book on Human Factors in Privacy Research

The external page book "Human Factors in Privacy Research" to which Verena Zimmermann contributed a chapter on Privacy Nudges has just been published open access. It nicely summarizes current and future trends for human-centered privacy.