I am an assistant professor at Barnard College, Columbia University in computer science. Previously, I was a postdoctoral research scientist at the George Washington University, working with Adam Aviv and Yasemin Acar. I earned my PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington in 2022 and had the pleasure of being advised by Yoshi Kohno.
My research explores how people use computer security and privacy mechanisms—their needs, experiences, and mental models—specifically focusing on people who are under-served or marginalized. For a quick sense of what I do, check out my talk at USENIX Enigma 2023 about how geopolitical change makes people (more) vulnerable to security and privacy harms.
Student research: I am recruiting Barnard and Columbia undergraduate students for research projects currently (for credit, with the potential to extend to paid research over the summer). I do not currently have funding to support graduate students, but if you already have funding, I would love to hear from you. Please email me with your research interests and background if you are interested in working with me.
You can email me at lsimko at barnard.edu.
I'm teaching Usable Security and Privacy at Barnard this fall.
16. Beyond “Vulnerable Populations”: A Unified Understanding of Vulnerability From A Socio-Ecological Perspective
15. ''It's been lovely watching you'': Institutional Decision-Making on Online Proctoring Software
14. ''It's time. Time for digital security.'': An End User Study on Actionable Security and Privacy Advice
13. "Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions": Community-developed techniques for online exam proctoring evasion
12. Exploring digital security and privacy in relative poverty in Germany through qualitative interviews Powered by w3.css Updated: August 2023
Xinru Tang, Gabriel Lima, Li Jiang, Lucy Simko, Yixin Zou
To appear, ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) 2025
Elisa Shioji, Ani Meliksetyan, Lucy Simko, Ryan Watkins, Adam J. Aviv and Shaanan Cohney
To appear, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland) 2025
Anna Lena Rotthaler, Harshini Sri Ramulu, Lucy Simko, Sascha Fahl, Yasemin Acar
To appear, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland) 2025
Lucy Simko, Adryana Hutchinson, Evan Fries, Alvin Isaac, Micah Sherr, Adam J Aviv
ACM CCS 2024.
Anastassija Kostan, Sara Olschar, Lucy Simko, Yasemin Acar. USENIX Security 2024.
11. "But they have overlooked a few things in Afghanistan:” The integration of biometric voter verification into the 2019 Afghan presidential elections.
Kabir Panahi, Shawn Robertson, Yasemin Acar, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexandru G Bardas, Lucy Simko. USENIX Security 2024.
10. Security, Privacy, and Data-sharing Concerns and Trade-offs When Moving to the United States: Insights from a Qualitative Study
Harshini Sri Ramulu*, Mindy Tran*, Collins W. Munyendo*, Rachel Gonzalez Rodriguez, Luisa Ball Schnell, Cora Sula, Lucy Simko, Yasemin Acar. IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland) 2024.
* co-first authors.
[ Talk by Harshini Sri Ramulu ]
9. “We've Disabled MFA for You”: An Evaluation of the Security and Usability of Multi-Factor Authentication Recovery Deployments
Sabrina Amft, Sandra Höltervennhoff, Nicolas Huaman, Alexander Krause, Lucy Simko, Yasemin Acar, Sascha Fahl. The ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2023.
8. The Use and Non-Use of Technology During Hurricanes
Lucy Simko, Harshini Sri Ramulu, Tadayoshi Kohno, Yasemin Acar. The Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work And Social Computing (CSCW) 2023.
Dissertation. Humans and Vulnerability During Times of Change: Computer Security Needs, Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities
Lucy Simko. PhD dissertation, 2022.
7. Would You Rather: A Focus Group Method for Eliciting and Discussing Formative Design Insights with Children
Lucy Simko, Britnie Chin, Sungmin Na, Harkiran Kaur Saluja, Tian Qi Zhu, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexis Hiniker, Jason Yip, and Camille Cobb. Interaction Design and Children (IDC) 2021.
[ Practical guidance ] [ Talk ]
6b. Defensive Technology Use by Political Activists During the 2018-2019 Sudanese Revolution
Alaa Daffalla*, Lucy Simko*, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexandru G. Bardas. IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine, March/April 2022.
* co-first authors.
Magazine article of our 2021 paper; selected for submission by the conference chairs.
6a. Defensive Technology Use by Political Activists During the Sudanese Revolution
Alaa Daffalla*, Lucy Simko*, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexandru G. Bardas. IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland) 2021.
* co-first authors.
[ Talk by Alaa Daffalla ]
5. COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Privacy: A Longitudinal Study of Public Opinion
Lucy Simko, Jack Lucas Chang, Maggie Jiang, Ryan Calo, Franziska Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
ACM Digital Threats 2021: Research and Practice: Special Issue on Security and Privacy for Covid-19.
Earlier non-peer-reviewed versions: [ Version 2.0, December 2020 ] [ Version 1.0, May 2020 ]
4. A Privacy-Focused Systematic Analysis of Online Status Indicators
Camille Cobb, Lucy Simko, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexis Hiniker. Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS) 2020.
[ Talk by Camille Cobb]
3. User Experiences with Online Status Indicators
Camille Cobb, Lucy Simko, Tadayoshi Kohno, Alexis Hiniker. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2020.
2. Computer Security and Privacy for Refugees in the United States
Lucy Simko, Ada Lerner, Samia Ibtasam, Franziska Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno. IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland) 2018.
[ Talk ]
1. Recognizing and Imitating Programmer Style: Adversaries in Program Authorship Attribution
Lucy Simko, Luke Zettlemoyer, Tadayoshi Kohno. Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS) 2018.