Kami Vaniea

Kami Vaniea

Biography

Dr. Kami Vaniea is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ. She researches the human factors related to security and privacy. The aim of her work is to improve the accessibility of security and privacy technologies for a diverse group of users, including end users, developers, and system administrators. Dr. Vaniea's recent projects include developer-centered privacy, dynamic phishing advice, bystander privacy in smart speakers, understanding barriers to software update installations, and addressing misconceptions about Twitter's privacy settings.

Research Interests

  • Usable Security and Privacy

  • Cybersecurity

  • Human-Computer Interaction

  • Information Security

  • Authorization and Access Control

  • Internet of Things

  • System Administration

Education

  • 2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

  • 2005, Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

Teaching*

  • ECE 458 - Computer Security
    • Taught in 2024, 2025
  • ECE 750 - Special Topics in Computer Software
    • Taught in 2024, 2025
  • SE 390 - Design Project Planning
    • Taught in 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

Selected/Recent Publications

  • D. Kirkman, K. Vaniea, D.W. Woods; DarkDialogs: Automated detection of 10 dark patterns on cookie dialogs; In Proceedings of the 8th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroSP'23). 2023.

  • M. Tahaei, K. Vaniea, A. Rashid;Embedding Privacy Into Design Through Software Developers: Challenges and Solutions; In IEEE Security & Privacy. 2023.

  • N. Meng-Schneider, R. Yasa Kostas, K. Vaniea, M.K. Wolters; Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions; In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2023.

  • Twitter has a Binary Privacy Setting, are Users Aware of How It Works? [bibtex] D. KeküllüoÄŸlu, K. Vaniea, M.K. Wolters, W. Magdy; In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW23). 2023.

  • K. Althobaiti, M.K. Wolters, N. Alsufyani, K. Vaniea; Using Clustering Algorithms to Automatically Identify Phishing Campaigns; In IEEE Access. 2023.

  • N. Pilavakis, A. Jenkins, N. Kokciyan, K. Vaniea; "I didn't click": What users say when reporting phishing; In Proceedings of the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (USEC'23). 2023.

  • F. Mathis, K. Vaniea, M. Khamis; Can I Borrow Your ATM? Using Virtual Reality for (Simulated) In Situ Authentication Research; In Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR). 2022.

  • D. KeküllüoÄŸlu, W. Magdy, K. Vaniea; From an Authentication Question to a Public Social Event: Characterizing Birthday Sharing on Twitter; In Proceedings of The 16th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM'22). 2022.

  • M. Tahaei, K. Vaniea; Recruiting Participants with Programming Skills: A Comparison of Four Crowdsourcing Platforms and a CS Student Mailing List; In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2022.

Graduate studies