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Shilton Receives NSF CAREER Award

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Katie Shilton, an assistant professor of information studies with an appointment in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2), was just named a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award.

Shilton will use research funding from the award—approximately $500,000 over the course of five years—to study new methods that will encourage mobile application developers to proactively build privacy and security into their software designs.

Although there are many technical innovations available to help developers protect user data, adoption of these innovations is low. Reasons for low adoption range from a lack of training in privacy or security design to the fact that privacy-enhancing features and best-practice data security measures are often expensive to implement—or even counter to business models that require user profiling or monitoring.

“Addressing cybersecurity problems requires expertise in both technical and behavioral aspects of computer security. We are excited to see Katie’s work at the interface of these areas being recognized by NSF.”

Jonathan Katz

Shilton’s project will study the workflow of developers, using both surveys and field experiments, to determine factors that motivate privacy and security by design. The project will also develop and test evidence-based toolkits for mobile developers to improve privacy and data security in the mobile data ecosystem.

“Addressing cybersecurity problems requires expertise in both technical and behavioral aspects of computer security,” says MC2 Director Jonathan Katz. “We are excited to see Katie’s work at the interface of these areas being recognized by NSF.”

The CAREER award is the NSF’s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty. It recognizes individuals that exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through their outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of their organization’s mission.

Read more about Shilton’s project here.